House of the Brave: Not His Father
by islandgirl394
Summary: Everyone expects James to be just like his father. He looks like him, talks like him, walks like him. Follow James through his seven years at Hogwarts and watch him learn how to pave his own way instead of letting his father's legacy drag him down. Part of the House of the Brave series.
1. September Year 1

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**Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.**

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_Year 1: A Rough Start _

Chapter 1: September 2016

"Now what?" Lucy Weasley demanded. We've been up and down the whole train and there are no free compartments."

"I guess we have to share one with someone," her cousin, James Potter, replied.

It was their first day of school and both were extremely excited to be finally heading to Hogwarts.

"Louis' compartment isn't too far away," Lucy commented. "Maybe we can ride with him."

James agreed and the two turned their trunks around and started wheeling them back up the hallway. As they passed one particularly full compartment, one of the occupants – a blond haired boy wearing a dress shirt tucked into his trousers and a tie that looked like it should have been choking him – got up excitedly and joined James and Lucy in the hall.

"You're James Potter the Second, aren't you?" he asked excitedly. "Harry Potter's son?"

James sighed and shared a look with Lucy. He'd been afraid of this. He didn't want to be known around school as 'Harry Potter's son', but with his father's reputation, he supposed it was inevitable. "Yeah, that's me," he replied reluctantly.

"I am so pleased to meet you," the boy said enthusiastically, grabbing onto James' hand and shaking it fervently. "I'm Zacharias Smith the Second," he added. "Our parents were the best of friends back in school and I just know that we can continue on with that legacy."

"Sorry… who's your father?" James asked, reclaiming his hand. He was pretty sure Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione had been his father's best friends back in school, but maybe he was forgetting a name.

"Well he was Zacharias Smith the First, of course," Zacharias replied. "I'm sure your father talks of my father all the time, just like my father talks of yours. Such a shame that they both work so much these days and no longer have the chance to see each other. If they had more time, then perhaps we would have met sooner."

"Yeah, it's a shame," James falsely agreed as he vaguely began to recall mention of a Zacharias Smith from the stories the adults used to tell at family dinners. In fact, if James remembered correctly, it had been Uncle Ron who'd mentioned the name, and he'd then described him using a word that James wasn't allowed to repeat. That had earned Uncle Ron an evening of washing dishes without magic by a displeased Grandmother Weasley who'd confiscated his wand. "Well, I guess we'll see you around," James said as he slowly inched his way backwards and away from Zacharias.

"Oh, won't you come join us?" Zacharias asked, gesturing to the compartment he had just come out of. "We thought it'd be fun to get as many first years together as possible to bond before the sorting ceremony splits us all up."

James tried to hide his grimace as he considered the prospect of spending the entire train ride listening to Zacharias. "While that sounds like a wonderful idea, we were just on our way to meet our cousin Louis. He's expecting us you see," James lied.

"Oh, what a shame," Zacharias said. "Well don't be a stranger. Though we'll probably end up in different houses, I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to spend time with each other, just as our fathers did."

"Right," James said, plastering a fake smile on his face as Zacharias bid him goodbye and returned to his compartment.

"And my name's Lucy, by the way," Lucy said to the door once it had shut behind Zacharias. "Not that anyone cares."

"Aww, come on Luce," James said as they resumed their trip to find their cousin. "Don't be like that."

"That's how it's going to be for the next seven years," Lucy pointed out. "Everyone's always going to notice you, and I'm just going to be your invisible cousin."

"That's not true," James insisted. "That Zacharias bloke is just ignorant. He probably takes after his father, and you remember what Uncle Ron said about him."

"Oh yeah," Lucy said with a laugh. "Grandmother Weasley got so mad, I could almost see smoke coming out of her ears."

When James and Lucy finally found their cousin's compartment, they stood outside the glass door and waved innocently.

"Hey guys, how are you?" Louis Weasley asked as he got up and slid the door open.

"We were hoping we could share your compartment," Lucy said. "There aren't any empty ones left."

"Oh sure," Louis replied, stepping aside to let his cousins in. "Justin, help me get their trunks up there," he ordered, gesturing to the racks above the seats where student's trunks were supposed to go.

"Thanks," James said in gratitude as he dragged his trunk inside behind Lucy's.

"By the way, James, Lucy, this is my friend Justin Spinnet. Justin, these are my cousins Lucy Weasley and James Potter," Louis said, gesturing back and forth between the parties. "James, Luce, we were about to go find the candy trolley, you want to come with us?" he asked.

"Thanks, but we're fine," Lucy replied. "We'll just sit here for a while."

"Suit yourself," Justin said. "But I'm not giving either of you any of my licorice wands," he added before he and Louis went into the hall and shut the door, beginning their quest for the candy trolley.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The train ride to Hogwarts passed quickly, and before James knew it, they had arrived at Hogsmeade station and the first years were being herded towards Hagrid.

"Hey Hagrid," James greeted the Professor warmly. Hagrid was one of his father's oldest friends. In fact, he'd known Hagrid since before Uncle Ron or Aunt Hermione.

"Hello James. Lucy," Hagrid responded. "Excited fer yer sorting?"

"Nervous is more like it," Lucy replied honestly.

"Ah, don' be. Everyone's always happy with the hat's decision."

The trip up to the castle was just as James had been expecting. Teddy had told him all about the boats and the lake, and when Hogwarts finally came into view, James was prepared for the overwhelming feeling of awe that came over him.

In no time, the first years were all gathered in the Entrance Hall and Hagrid knocked three times on the doors of the Great Hall. It was answered by Neville – another of James' father's friends from his school days – and after a word of greeting the group began to file inside.

"Adams, Alexandra," the first name was called after the sorting hat had sung it's song. Alexandra walked up and sat on the stool and Neville placed the hat on her head.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat cried out. James watched as the girl happily took a seat with the Slytherins became aware of Lucy tensing up next to him.

"What's wrong?" turning to his cousin, as the next name was read.

"Just worried about getting sorted somewhere other than Gryffindor," Lucy muttered. "I know it's stupid. All the Weasleys go in Gryffindor, so I really have nothing to worry about."

"You're right," James nodded. "This is all just a formality anyway. Everyone in this room knows where we're going to end up. Just remember to be confident when they call your name. The hat will sense if you're afraid."

"Right," Lucy muttered. "Be confident."

The sorting seemed to drag on and on, but finally it was James' turn.

"Potter, James," Neville read. Sucking in a breath, James held his head up and confidently walked towards the front of the room. Neville smiled at him as he took his seat on the stool, and as the hat was lowered onto his head, James shut his eyes.

"Ah, James Potter," the sorting hat whispered into James' ear. "You're not like your father at all, are you?" it asked. James felt a flutter of nerves when he heard this. He'd been so sure he was getting into Gryffindor – was the hat telling him he'd been wrong? "No, your father was a difficult placement, but you're one of the easiest minds I've seen today," the hat went on. James wondered at that for a moment, but didn't have much time to process the hat's words as it kept on talking. "Yes, there's no doubt about it," the hat said. "You belong in… GRYFFINDOR!"

James let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as he leapt up from the stool in glee and went to sit with Justin and Louis. He was so happy and relieved that he didn't even bother to think about what the hat had said about his father being hard to sort.

When Lucy was finally called towards the end, James tried to send her calming thoughts. He could see fear in her eyes and he hoped the hat wouldn't think she was too cowardly for Gryffindor. There was a moment of uncertainty once the hat was on her head before it declared anything, but then the word _Gryffindor_ rang out across the hall and James and his entire table jumped up and started cheering.

As Lucy joined her cousins at the Gryffindor table, Neville finished reading the names of the last three students to be sorted. Finally, when Woolsey, Sebastian went to Ravenclaw, Headmaster Slinkhard stood up and announced the beginning of the welcome feast.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The next morning dawned bright and early, and James and Lucy were full of enthusiasm for their first day of school.

"I'm so glad we have Herbology first," Lucy said to James as they congregated with the rest of their class outside greenhouse one. "It'll be nice to have Professor Longbottom teaching our first class."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't James Potter," an approaching student drawled. "Look at you, standing there all innocent. You think you can walk into my school and not even acknowledge me? Who do you think you are?" the boy said.

"Sorry," James said, "but, I don't know who you are." James noted that the student in question wore Slytherin colors, and though he wasn't sure why this particular student seemed to hate him, he knew it couldn't be good.

"Don't play games with me. You know who I am and you know what you've done. You think you're going to get away with it? Think again," the boy said.

Just at that moment, to James' relief, Neville came running around the corner, his arms full of textbooks and scrolls of parchment. As he raced towards the classroom, already running late, he tripped and fell over, sending the contents of his arms tumbling to the ground.

"Neville, are you alright?" James cried, running to the aid of the old family friend. As he helped his professor gather up his things, he could hear the rest of the class snickering behind him and he realized his mistake. He'd accidentally called his professor by his first name. "I mean… Professor Longbottom," James corrected himself, but it was much too late for that.

Neville, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice James' verbal fumble, and simply thanked him for the assistance as he unlocked the greenhouse and let everyone inside. James deposited the scrolls he'd been carrying on his professor's desk and joined Lucy at the back of the room, in the hopes that in the back, he would receive less stares.

"I can't believe that just happened," James mumbled as Lucy patted him on the back in an attempt to be comforting.

"Alright first years, welcome to Herbology," Neville said enthusiastically. "Rather than start off with a bunch of boring note-taking, I thought we'd start with a hands on approach to the subject. In this pouch, I have a mixture of seeds, all different. Each of you is going to plant one of these seeds, and over the course of the first term, you are going to care for them as they grow. We will be studying all these plants over the course of the next three and a half months, and by the end of term, I'd like you all to be able to identify your plant," he said.

"Gee, sounds like fun," James muttered sarcastically to Lucy. In reply, Lucy hit him on the shoulder.

"So to begin, I'd like you all to fetch a pot from the back and fill it with soil. Then you may come up front and receive your seed," he said.

Since James and Lucy were at the back of the room, they were closest to the pots and got to them first. Once they'd filled their pots with soil, they turned around to go and get their seeds, only for James to bump right into the Slytherin boy from earlier, causing him to spill his soil all down the front of his robes.

"Watch where you're going," the Slytherin boy said angrily.

"Watch where I'm going?" James asked incredulously. "You're the one who was standing an inch away from me."

"Don't blame me for your incompetence," the boy cried.

"Boys, boys, is everything alright over here?" Neville asked, hurrying over to break up what was possibly turning into a fight.

"Everything's fine, _Professor Longbottom_," the Slytherin boy said, stressing that last part in mockery of James. "I was just about to fill my pot," he added before going to do exactly that.

"Are you alright, James?" Neville asked when the other boy was out of earshot.

"Fine," James replied. "Just confused. Do you know why he hates me so much?"

"Probably just Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry," Neville said cautiously. "I'll try to put an end to it," he added before returning to his desk.

"This is so exciting," Zacharias Smith exclaimed, showing up next to James unannounced, and causing James to jump. Had there been any soil in his pot, it would all have split. "It's just like when our fathers were at school together."

"Come again?" James asked, not following.

"Oh, you know," Zacharias said. "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were mortal enemies, and now Jason Nott has it out for you on the first day? It's history all over again."

"So that's his name?" James asked. "Jason Nott? Doesn't ring a bell."

"You don't know him?" Zacharias asked in surprise.

"No, do you?" James asked hopeful for some answers.

"No, I just assumed you did, since he hates you so much," Zacharias replied.

"I only wish I knew why," James muttered as he got back in line to get more soil.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

After Herbology, the first years were scheduled for potions class in the dungeons with Neville's wife, Hannah. After what had happened first period, James had had enough of Jason Nott, so when Jason took the seat directly to James' right, he wasn't very happy.

"What are you doing?" James hissed as Hannah – Professor Abbott-Longbottom, he reminded himself – began the lecture.

"Just sitting," Jason replied. "Is there a crime against sitting? I guess you'd know if there was one," he said venomously.

"What are you talking about?" James asked in confusion.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Jason replied.

"No, I really don't," James insisted. When it seemed that Jason was going to refuse to explain himself, James glanced over to his left, where Lucy sat, hoping for an explanation, but she only shrugged.

When he turned back, he decided just to ignore Jason, which proved difficult since the boy continued to whisper to him throughout the whole class. When it was finally over, all James wanted to do was leave and go to lunch, but of course, Jason wouldn't have it.

"Oops, I'm so sorry James," Jason cried out as he knocked James' bag out of his arms, sending all his books and supplies flying across the room.

"Seriously?" James cried, finally reaching the end of his tolerance. "Was that really necessary?"

"I'm sorry, it was an accident," Jason replied, feigning innocence.

"It was not, you did it on purpose, and now you're trying to make it seem like an accident so that I come off the bad guy," he cried.

"Look, I'm sorry I knocked over your stuff, but I really don't see why you're so upset," Jason said.

"Is everything alright boys?" Hannah asked, hurrying down from the front of the classroom to break up the argument.

"No, everything is not alright. He's been harassing me all day, and now he's just knocked my things everywhere," James cried.

"It was an accident," Jason defended himself. "James is being unreasonable."

"Alright, I think I've heard quite enough," Hannah interrupted the two. "I heard you both talking all through my class, and clearly you can't get along, so I'm giving you both detention. I'll see you both here tonight at seven o'clock," she ordered.

"Typical," Jason muttered at James once Hannah had gone back to the front of the classroom.

This time, instead of questioning him, James ignored the comment and shoved past Jason in his haste to get out of there and get to the Great Hall for lunch.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Unfortunately for James, the rest of the day flew by. His dread for detention that night only grew the closer it came, and he couldn't believe that he'd managed to get in trouble so soon into the start of the year. He thought it was a little unfair that Hannah had given him detention rather than just deducting house points, but he didn't want to fight it, knowing that she would probably tell his father everything, and he didn't want arguing with his professors to be added to his list of wrongdoings.

When seven o'clock finally rolled around, James reluctantly walked up to the door to his potions classroom and entered to find Jason already there and sitting at one of the desks, on which there stood two buckets of something with an unpleasant smell.

"Ah James, you're here, excellent. Now we can start," Hannah announced when he entered. "Tonight, you will be separating slugs. I want you to pick out the fatter slugs and put them in the empty container between you, and throw the skinnier, sickly looking slugs away in the disposal buckets on the floor," she explained.

"That's so gross!" James whined.

"I know," Hannah said with a smile. "That's what happens when you get detention," she added.

"Ugh," James muttered as he plunged his hand into the vat of slugs and pulled out his first one. How do we know if it's fat or skinny?" he asked.

Hannah looked up from the lesson plan she was working on and assessed his slug. "I would consider that a fat slug, but any skinner and I'd throw it away," she replied.

Not too much later, there was a knock on the door and Neville walked in. "Can I have a word, Hannah?" he asked.

"Sure," Hannah replied. "You two better behave while I'm gone," she instructed. "I'll be just outside," she added before following her husband out into the corridor.

As soon as Hannah was gone, Jason turned to James and spoke.

"You're going to regret getting me detention," Jason threatened as he tossed a slug into the disposal bucket.

"Getting you detention?" James asked. "You earned this all on your own," he insisted.

"If you hadn't started yelling, we wouldn't be in this mess," Jason accused.

"If you hadn't been such a jerk, I wouldn't have had to yell," James retorted.

"Is that so?" Jason asked, glaring at James.

"Yeah," James replied, not noticing the evil glint in Jason's eyes.

Without warning, Jason suddenly knocked James' vat of slugs over into his lap, causing the slugs to spill out all over James.

"What was that for?" James cried, jumping up and trying to shake all the slugs off him.

"I told you you'd regret getting me detention," Jason smirked.

"Ah, now I stink!" James cried, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"Serves you right," Jason said.

"What did I ever do to you?" James demanded angrily, his nostrils flaring. "What did I do to make you hate me so much?"

"It's not what you've done; it's what your father's done. It's what your family's done. It's what you all stand for," Jason said, wrinkling his nose in disgust, whether at the smell of the slugs or the thought of the Potters, James would never know.

"You mean defeating Voldemort?" James asked in confusion. Generally, people celebrated that fact. James had never been hated because of his father before.

"I don't care about that," Jason said. "All I care about is my father, and the fact that I will never know him outside of Azkaban."

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"My father did nothing wrong," Jason cried. "He didn't know who he was helping; he thought he was doing a family friend a favor!" James was still as confused as ever, but Jason was still yelling. "I wasn't even born yet when your father arrested my father. He threw him in Azkaban with a life sentence. A _life sentence_!" he cried. "I didn't even get to meet him until my tenth birthday because of prison rules. And it's your fault: you, your father, and your family; all of them."

"Look, I'm really sorry – " James began, but Jason wouldn't hear of it.

"Spare me," Jason cried. "I don't want to hear more fake apologies. The only thing you could do to make things better is convince your father to let my father out of Azkaban."

James looked away sadly. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that," he said. As much as he wished he could, not only to end their feud, but also because he could hear the pain in Jason's voice, there was nothing he could do. If Jason's father was a convicted Death Eater, then his fate was sealed. And his father never incarcerated someone without being sure they deserved it.

"So I was right," Jason said quietly. "You're just like the rest of them."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Detention lasted until right before curfew, when Hannah finally allowed the boys to go.

Look, Jason," James said once they had been dismissed and were on their way to their respective common rooms. "I feel really bad about everything that's happened… maybe we can start out with a clean slate?" he asked, hopefully. He felt bad for the boy, he really did. And while he couldn't ask his father to release a convict from prison, he could do his best to befriend Jason.

"You just watch your back, Potter," Jason threatened. "I'm going to make you sorry for everything your father's done," he added, shoving James into a suit of armor. James cried out in pain when he made contact with the sword, and a large gash appeared on his forearm. "Oops," Jason smirked before sauntering away.

James fumed. All the sympathy he'd felt for the boy vanished. He'd tried to be nice, but this was too much.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

When James returned to his dormitory, the only thought on his mind was changing out of his horrible smelling robes.

"What is that smell?" one of his dorm mates asked. James hadn't really gotten the chance to know his dorm mates yet, and his heart sunk at the thought that this was how he was going to start.

"Sorry, Jason Nott dumped a vat of slugs all over me in detention," James apologized.

"He really has it out for you, doesn't he?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, he seems to," James replied, choosing not to reveal why.

"So, are you going to get back at him for this?" the boy asked.

"I don't know…" James said hesitantly.

"Well if you decide you want to, I'm more than happy to help. Anyone who's going to make my roommate smell this bad is an enemy of mine," the boy said.

"Thanks," James replied. "What's your name?"

"Andrew MacDonald," the boy replied. "Now please, change your clothes before I lose my sense of smell completely.


	2. October Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start _

Chapter 2: October 2016

It was a Monday morning and the first years were stuck in the dungeons learning about Valerian sprigs. While Professor Abbott-Longbottom tried to get her class excited about one of the most important ingredients of the forgetfulness potion; a potion she hoped they would be ready to brew soon, most of the class was wishing that the weekend could have been extended to include Mondays. For his part, James Potter was having the worst morning of all. For some reason, Jason Nott had taken a particular interest in sitting next to James in potions, and today was no exception.

"…and in medieval times, Valerian was known to Muggles as All Heal," Hannah explained. "Does anybody know what it was used for?" Lucy, who was sitting on James' other side, immediately raised her hand. "Yes, Lucy?" the professor asked.

"Due to the fact that it was recognized for its sedative and antispasmodic properties, it was generally used as a sleep and nerve remedy. Later, it was even used to treat epilepsy," Lucy said.

"Excellent," Hannah praised her before continuing on with the lesson.

"Luce," James whispered. "How do you know that?" he wondered. Though he and Lucy had done their fair share of studying since the start of term, she seemed to know an awful lot more than he did.

"You try living with Molly and not learn anything. She spent half the summer quizzing me on everything she thought I would need to know coming into my first year," Lucy said, rolling her eyes.

"Sounds like the summer of a lifetime," James said sarcastically as he refocused his attention on his notes. Professor Abbott-Longbottom was writing on the board again, and James dutifully copied down everything she was writing.

"So your cousin thinks she's pretty smart, doesn't she?" Jason Nott whispered from James' other side, suddenly much closer to James' head than he'd realized.

"She doesn't think she is, she is," James replied, becoming increasingly frustrated with Jason's insistence on constantly bugging him.

"Is that so?" Jason murmured. "You think she's smarter than me?"

"I didn't say that," James replied, not wanting to start a fight.

"So you're saying I'm smarter than her?" Jason asked.

"I didn't say that either," James responded. He knew better than to fall into that trap.

"Well what did you say?" Jason demanded. "You must have some opinion."

"Nope, no opinion, just want to take down my notes," James said, annoyed.

"Oh, I get it," Jason said, "you think you're the smart one. Taking down the notes, paying attention to the lesson... you think you're better than me."

"I didn't say that either," James claimed.

"You know, without those notes, you'd be no better than the rest of us," Jason said, a hint of a threat in his voice. While James continued to try to ignore the boy and pay attention to Hannah, Jason reached out his arm, as though he were stretching. As he retracted his arms though, one of his hands knocked against James' inkwell and the ink spilled out, pooling all over James' notes.

"Oh my goodness James, I'm so sorry!" Jason cried, jumping up immediately. "I've gone and spilt all your ink! Here, you can have my spare jar," he offered, reaching into his bag and retrieving the spare jar.

"Thank you Jason, that was very nice of you," Hannah said with a smile. "Take five points for Slytherin for your generosity," she said before returning to the lesson.

James glared at Jason, unable to do anything else after the fabulous performance he'd just displayed.

"What are you going to do now?" Jason asked with a smirk, knowing he'd won. "Now you'll have to start your notes all over again," he added. But James and Jason both knew that this had nothing to do with the notes.

When class was over and Jason had left with his friends, James' dorm mate, Andrew MacDonald, came over to where James was trying to salvage what he could of his old notes.

"Ready to fight back yet?" he asked.

James sighed and shook his head. "I'm not looking for an archenemy. I just wish we could coexist."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"Alright, so now that we've learned all the theory behind making the forgetfulness potion, I think we're ready to try brewing it. So don't forget to bring your cauldrons and your scales to our next class," Professor Abbott-Longbottom instructed at the end of class. "Also, before you leave, Madame Volant has asked me to inform you all that your first flying lesson will be held tomorrow afternoon right after your last class. You should all meet on the grounds outside the Entrance Hall."

Upon this final announcement, the room burst into excited chatter.

"I'm finally going to learn how to fly!"

"This is so exciting!"

"I wonder if I'll be any good?"

"I can't wait to be up in the air!"

Meanwhile James was even more excited than most.

"My dad was a seeker, you know," he informed Andrew. "The youngest seeker Hogwarts has seen in over a century. And my mum played for the Holyhead Harpies. Quidditch is in my blood. I'll probably be the best flier in our class. I can't wait to finally feel what it's like to fly."

"Seriously?" Jason cried when he overheard James and Andrew's conversation. "Are you telling me you've never rode a broom before?"

James frowned and turned around. "Well it's not like I was allowed. There are rules about flying without a license."

"I always knew you were a good-for-nothing daddy's-boy waste-of-space, but I had no idea you were a coward too. Looks like the hat made a mistake when it sorted you into Gryffindor," Jason mocked.

"I'm not a coward!" James cried in defence.

"Then why wouldn't you have snuck a ride of two on one of your parent's brooms?" Jason demanded. "I know they both own them. Were you afraid daddy would find out and you'd get in trouble?"

"Yeah," Jason's friend, Parker Parkinson, added. "Were you scared your mommy wouldn't be there to catch you if you fell off your broom?"

James swallowed as he wondered how many of his classmates had broken the rules and flown before. Would he in fact be at the bottom of his class, instead of at the top where he'd expected to be? Crossing his arms, he pushed away his fear and looked Jason straight in the eye.

"I'm twice the flier you'll ever be," he declared. "Obviously the only reason you broke the rules and flew without a licence is that you knew you'd need the practice."

"At lessons tomorrow, James is going to be so far ahead of you, that all you're going to be able to do with your broom is sweep up all the dust he'll be leaving behind," Andrew claimed.

"I don't think so," Parker countered. "Jason's going to be so much better than James that he's going to have to transfigure his broom into a mop to wipe up his tears."

"Well you'd better hope he shares that mop, because he's going to need it when he's watching him fly way higher than the rest of the class and his eyes start tearing up from staring into the sun for too long," Andrew retorted.

"Oh yeah?" Parker cried. "Well you'd better – "

"Boys! Boys!" Lucy interrupted, stepping between the arguing pairs. "Stop this before you do something you'll regret and all end up in detention," she ordered them.

"Lucky your cousin intervened, Potter," Jason mocked. "Or we might've done something you'd regret."

"Don't you mean something that _you'd_ regret?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, you wish," Jason scoffed, grabbing Parker by the arm and jerking him away.

"Don't listen to them," Lucy reassured James and Andrew, "you'll do fine at flying lessons."

"Sure," James said hesitantly, sharing a look with Andrew. Andrew grimaced, and James felt a prickle of fear trying to pry it's way back into his mind. With a forceful shove, he pushed it down and buried it. There was no room for fear if he was going to beat Jason.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

They arrived at the Quidditch pitch to find that the flying instructor, Madame Volant, had already laid out the school brooms in two straight lines. Nervous, James and Andrew steered clear of the Comets and settled for a couple of perfectly reasonable Cleansweeps. Madame Volant instructed them to call their brooms to them by saying 'up', and both Andrew and James were pleasantly surprised when their brooms obeyed without delay.

"Hey Potter, MacDonald," Jason Nott whispered as he slithered up next to James, choosing a Tinderblast Five as his broom for the lesson. "So you actually showed up, did you?"

"Scared we'll show you up?" James challenged him.

"The only thing you're going to show us up in is failure," Jason smirked.

"We'll see about that," James said determinedly. He turned to Andrew. "We've got to give this our all," he whispered. "We can't let Jason and Parker win."

"Hang on," Andrew frowned. "I never said anything about being good at flying. This is all on you."

"Not anymore it isn't," James shook his head. After their altercation with the Slytherins the day before, James and Andrew were both going to have to fly their very best.

Madame Volant then took back control of the class, and the bickering first years turned their attention to her. "Mount your brooms," she instructed. "Now when I blow my whistle, I want you all to kick off from the ground slightly, which will cause your broom to rise off the ground. Don't try to go anywhere, just let yourself hover for a moment. When I blow my whistle a second time, I want you all to lean forward slightly, and then touch down again on the ground."

James tightened his grip on his broom; he could do this, he knew he could. It was simple enough. He just had to focus to make sure he did it perfectly right.

Madame Volant blew her whistle and all the first years kicked off from the ground. While most of the students were able to hover with no problem, there were a few who wobbled a lot, and even a few who fell. When everyone was back on the ground, Madame Volant instructed everyone who had trouble hovering to form a 'beginner' group and go practice hovering off to the side while she continued to work with the rest of the class. Lucky for James and Andrew, they'd managed to hover steadily and were still in the game. Unfortunately for them, so were Jason and Parker.

"Alright, next we're going to try actually flying," Madame Volant announced. "When I blow my whistle, I want you all to kick off from the ground hard. You'll rise a little more than before. Then I'll blow my whistle again and I want you all lean into your broomstick. If you do it right, you'll move forward. If you do it wrong, you'll end up touching back down on the ground. Ready? Three… two…" she blew her whistle and everyone remaining kicked off from the ground and waited for the next whistle.

When it blew, James leaned forward a little; not as much as before when he'd wanted to return to the ground, but enough to nudge his broom forward. As Madame Volant had said it would, his broom surged forward. Realizing that he was much further ahead of everyone else, James pulled back on his broom's handle and leaned to the left to turn around. When he did, he found Jason wasn't too much further behind him, though he was going much slower than James had been. Andrew and Parker were even further behind, inching forward ever so slowly. Back at the beginning, Lucy and much of the rest of the class were back on the ground, apparently having been unable to master the subtle difference between nudging forward and leaning forward.

Madame Volant blew her whistle again and called everyone back to the starting spot. She instructed those who hadn't been able to fly forward to form a second 'intermediate' group and to go practice near the beginners. As Lucy picked up her broom and prepared to head over to practice with the intermediates, she stepped over to James and whispered, "See? You're much better than Jason and Parker. You don't need to stoop to their level."

"Wonderful," Madame Volant said, clapping her hands together and turning to those who were left. "As for those of you who are left, let's call this the advanced group," she said, addressing the six remaining students. Apart from James, Andrew, Jason and Parker, there were also a couple Ravenclaw girls who'd made it this far. "Now, I want to work with each of you individually, so Parker, why don't I start with you and the rest of you can either observe, or practice some basics on your own."

Parker stood up to begin his private lesson and James decided to do a few laps of the pitch while he waited his turn.

"I guess your friend thinks he's pretty special, doesn't he?" Jason asked Andrew as they both waited their turns.

"Look Jason, you may have flown better than me, but we both know James is the best flier here," Andrew said.

"We'll see about that," Jason muttered. "I doubt James could pull that off again, and I wasn't even warmed up."

"Look at him," Andrew said, pointing to James who was flying laps around the pitch without a problem. "He's clearly the best here. Look at his father; Harry Potter made the Quidditch team his first year without even trying out! I know James isn't quite that good yet, but there's clearly Quidditch in his blood."

James chose that moment to stop flying laps and to touch down next to Andrew and Jason.

"Beat that, Nott," he challenged the Slytherin as he took hold of Andrew's arm and dragged him away. "Come on, let's go stand somewhere else," he said.

Finally, Madame Volant finished her lesson with Parker and called James over next.

"Alright, show me your best," Madame Volant told him. Obligingly, James mounted his broom and took off, soaring round and round the pitch, even managing to do it with one hand for a while. When he touched back down, Madame Volant applauded him. "That was some amazing flying for a first year," she told him. "Though there is definitely room for improvement. For example, I think if you didn't grip your broom so tightly, you'd have much more freedom, as well as increased agility."

James nodded and mounted his broom once more, eager to make the corrections. He found that she was in fact right; once he relaxed and stopped gripping his broom so tightly, he was able to fly with much more ease.

"Well I think this is a wonderful start," Madame Volant smiled when James touched down again. "Have you thought about trying out for the Quidditch team next year? I think with a little bit of work, you'd be ready in no time."

"Really?" James asked excitedly. All the fear and nervousness he'd been feeling before vanished now that he knew how good he was. "I'd never thought of trying out so soon, but yeah, I'd love to. I've always wanted to be a seeker, just like my dad."

"Hmm," Madame Volant hummed. "Well I suppose if your heart's set on being a seeker, we can work on that," she nodded.

James frowned. "You don't think I'd make a good seeker? I thought you just said I should try out for the team next year."

"Well yes," Madame Volant nodded. "But based on my observations of your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your flying style, I think you'd actually make a fine chaser," Madame Volant replied.

"Really?" James asked, surprised. "You think I should be a chaser?"

"It's up to you," Madame Volant said. "But I think it's something to consider. You fly like a chaser, that's for sure."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

When the lesson was finally over, James, Andrew, and Lucy all headed back up to the common room together. While James was keeping quiet about his private lesson, Andrew couldn't stop talking about his.

"…and she said that I wasn't sitting right, which is why I keep drifting off to the right," Andrew said. "But she said in a few years with a little practice, I'd be a great Keeper!"

"That's amazing!" Lucy exclaimed. "What about you James, did she say anything about Quidditch to you?"

James sighed. "She said I'd make a good chaser," he confessed.

"Wow, that's great!" Lucy said. "I bet she doesn't tell all her students that."

"Yeah, but…" James trailed off.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"It's just that I don't want to be a chaser. I want to be a seeker," James revealed.

"James, just because your father was a seeker doesn't mean you have to be one," Lucy told him.

"Yeah, but it's just… I don't want to let him down," James mumbled.

"James Sirius Potter, I demand you stop thinking like that. Nothing you can do will let Uncle Harry down. He doesn't expect you to repeat everything he did at school, he wants you to live your own life. And if that means being a chaser, then by Merlin, you should be a chaser," Lucy cried.

"I suppose you're right," James sighed. "But everyone expects me to follow in Dad's footsteps."

"James," Lucy said, finally understanding what was wrong. "I told you, you can't expect to be able to do everything the same way your father did," she said, wrapping an arm around her cousin. "You aren't your father."

"But I have to live up to Dad's legacy," James replied.

"Who told you that?" Lucy demanded.

"Uncle Ron," James replied. "At the last family dinner, he said 'James, now that you're going to be going to Hogwarts, you've got a big reputation to live up to. I hope you don't let us down.'"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Well you know what Aunt Hermione always says. Uncle Ron still hasn't learned to think before he speaks."

"But he's right," James protested. "I'm the first Potter to go to Hogwarts since my Dad. I've got to make him proud, follow in his footsteps and carry on the Potter legacy."

"No," Lucy said. "You have to live your own life. You aren't your father, and you aren't going to be able to live the exact same life he lived. If you try and live up to everything your father achieved, you're going to be very disappointed."

"But – "

"You'll make him proud by doing your best and being your own person," Lucy added.

"I guess you're right," James sighed, continuing to stare at the ground.

"Of course I am," Lucy replied happily. "I'm always right."

James grinned and punched his cousin on the shoulder playfully. "Is that right?"

"You bet," Lucy smiled.


	3. November Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start _

Chapter 3: November 2016

As October turned into November, James and Jason's war only continued to escalate. As much as James tried to avoid confronting the Slytherin, Jason kept trying to find ways to get into James' face, making it extremely hard for James not to engage.

"You should try talking to him," Lucy encouraged one evening in the common room. "Explain that you don't want any part of whatever he's doing and ask if you can just let you be."

"You really think he's going to listen to anything I have to say to him?" James demanded. "He hates me."

"Which is why you need to strike now," Andrew voiced his opinion. "Jason thinks he can walk all over you because you're not fighting back. You have to show him that you can hold your own."

"I don't want to cause trouble," James muttered. "Then again, it's not like my dad was the peacemaker back when he was in school."

"Oh no you don't!" Lucy exclaimed. "You are not going to use Uncle Harry's behaviour when he was at Hogwarts dictate how you handle things. You are not your father and these are entirely different circumstances."

James sighed, knowing Lucy was right. "Fine," he allowed. "I'll try talking to him. But if it doesn't work – "

"Revenge," Andrew finished James' sentence for him.

James nodded. "Revenge," he confirmed.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The next morning, as the first years gathered outside the potions classroom, James and Andrew approached Jason and Parker.

"Hey man," James said. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for anything I might have done since the beginning of term to make you hate me. If you can forgive me, then I can forgive you too, and then I hope we can start over with a clean slate."

"Forgiveness?" Jason cried. "You're asking for my forgiveness? Have you forgotten everything?"

"Look, I know you don't like me, and I know it's because of my father, but I'm not him. And I just hope that we can at least be cordial with each other, since we're going to be living in this castle together for the next seven years," James said.

Jason stared at James incredulously, and James was sure that he was going to reject his offer of peace. But then something changed in Jason's face and he smiled. "Sure, Potter. Let's call a truce," he said, holding out his hand.

James took it and smiled back. "I'm James Potter. Nice to meet you," he said.

At that moment, Professor Abbott-Longbottom came flying down the hallway.

"Sorry I'm late," she cried as she unlocked the door to the classroom and let everyone in.

"You're not late, Professor," Tina Sweeting piped up. "You still have thirty-nine seconds before class starts."

"Thank you Tina," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said as she deposited her things on the desk at the front of the classroom and took a moment to catch her breath. In the meantime, James and the rest of the students filed in and took their seats.

"Alright class," Professor Abbott-Longbottom announced once everyone was seated. "We've been studying the forgetfulness potion for a few weeks now, and I think we're finally ready to brew it today. But before we attempt it, I just want to go over the rules of potion-making one last time. Can anyone tell me what those rules are?" A few people raised their hands. "Lucy? Can you tell us the first rule?"

"Follow the instructions carefully; if it's not in the list of ingredients, don't take it out of the cupboard, because you don't want it to end up in your cauldron," Lucy recited.

"Very good," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said. "This rule is especially important now, while you're all beginners, because there are lots of ingredients that you still haven't learnt about, so you don't know what kind of effects they may have if they come into contact with your potion. Alright… who can tell us the next rule? Tina?"

"Keep your body away from your cauldron; you don't want to end up covered in potion," Tina stated.

"Exactly," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said. "While it may be difficult to keep away from your potion and yet still be close enough to be brewing, try to keep your hands high above your cauldron when adding ingredients, and be careful when stirring not to slosh your potion around too much. Now does anyone remember the last rule?"

One of James and Andrew's dorm mates, Shawn, raised his hand.

"Yes, Shawn?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom asked.

"Take your time; rushing the potion can only end in disaster," he replied.

"Yes," Professor Abbott-Longbottom smiled. "Now this rule isn't especially pertinent today, as the potion can be brewed in under half an hour. But as you become more advanced potion brewers, you'll be brewing potions that take a much longer time to brew, sometimes potions that must be brewed over the course of several days or weeks. But no matter how long it takes, you cannot rush a potion, or it won't turn out the way you want it to."

Slowly and a little hesitantly, the first year students began to shuffle towards the store cupboards to collect the ingredients they would need. Once everyone had acquired sufficient ingredients, they returned to their desks, ready to start brewing their potions.

"Hey Parker," Jason muttered under his breath so that nobody would hear. "I just thought of a great way to mess with Potter."

"I thought you were calling a truce?" Parker asked, confused.

"Yeah right!" Jason scoffed. "Like I'm calling a truce with that no-good son of an Auror! No, I just said that to lull him into a false sense of security."

"Alright," Parker said. "So what's the plan?"

"You heard Professor Abbott-Longbottom," Jason said. "Well what do you think she would do if Potter broke her number one potion-brewing rule?"

Parker smiled. "I suppose she would have to give him detention," he replied.

"Exactly," Jason said, smirking evilly.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

As the first years finished up their potions, Jason knew he didn't have much time left if he was going to sabotage James' potion. While Parker distracted Professor Abbott-Longbottom, Jason slipped into the store cupboard and grabbed the first thing he found: hellebore.

On his way back to his desk, he walked past the desk where James and Andrew were brewing their potion and slipped a bit of the hellebore into their cauldron.

"It's done," he whispered to Parker when he returned. "Now we just wait and see what happens."

They didn't have to wait long. Moments later, there was a loud explosion from James and Andrew's cauldron. James jumped away in surprise, hoping that none of the potion had managed to splash out and land on him.

"What is happening over here?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom cried, running over.

"I don't know, they just exploded all of a sudden!" James cried. "We followed all the directions, we promise."

As their Professor inspected their cauldron, Jason and Parker sat back, eager to see the show unfold.

"What, may I ask, is this?" she asked, pulling a plant-like thing out of the cauldron.

"I don't know, I didn't put it in there!" James exclaimed, turning to look at Andrew.

"Me neither," Andrew confirmed, holding his hands up in a show of surrender. "I've never seen that before in my life."

"It's hellebore," she declared. "Do you know what hellebore does when it reacts with valerian sprigs in a mixture containing Lethe River Water?"

"I'm guessing it causes an explosion?" James ventured.

"Yes, it does," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said, unimpressed. "You're lucky there were only a few drops of the Lethe River Water in these potions, otherwise you could have blown the whole castle apart. Detention, tonight the both of you."

"But we didn't put it in there," James cried indignantly. "Someone's trying to get us in trouble."

"I'm sorry James, but unless you can prove that, I have to give you all detention," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said. "Tonight, seven o'clock."

As their Professor turned her back to her students to return to the front, James looked over in the direction of Jason and Parker. Cheekily, Jason waved, wiggling his fingers mockingly.

"Nott," James muttered angrily, realizing what had happened. "He sabotaged us."

"Guess your cousin's truce idea was a bust," Andrew noted. "Ready to give revenge a try?"

Before James could answer, a second explosion sounded from the far end of the room.

"What is the meaning of this?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom exclaimed, hurrying over in a fury. James glanced over to find that the cauldron that had exploded belonged to Zacharias Smith and Kyle Ellison, both from Hufflepuff. "This is outrageous!" the Professor exclaimed upon examining their potion. "Do you mean to tell me after witnessing what just happened and hearing how dangerous it is, you decided it would be smart to add hellebore to your potion as well?" she demanded, holding up the offending ingredient.

"It's my fault, Professor," Zacharias Smith admitted. "I threw it in. Kyle had nothing to do with it."

"And why on earth would you do such a foolish thing?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom demanded.

Zacharias shrugged. "I suppose I have detention tonight as well?" he wondered.

"That'll be a start," Professor Abbott-Longbottom nodded. "But I'm also going to take twenty points from Hufflepuff for foolishly repeating a dangerous stunt even after hearing me explain the risks."

Zacharias hung his head and James groaned.

"I can't believe we're going to be stuck in detention tonight with that brown-noser," he complained.

"Is he really that bad?" Andrew frowned, not having properly met the Hufflepuff boy yet.

"He's worse," James confirmed, remembering their introduction on the train and a few run-ins they'd had in corridors since the start of term. "This might even be worse than detention with Nott."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

That night, James, Andrew, and Zacharias gathered in the potions classroom for detention. Professor Abbott-Longbottom had just finished explaining what she expected them to do. The three boys were to empty out the store cupboard, scrub it down, and then put everything back exactly where they'd found them. Supposedly it was supposed to help them get acquainted with the ingredients so that they wouldn't accidentally use the wrong thing again.

"Now I'll be in my office grading papers," Professor Abbott-Longbottom warned them. "And I will be able to hear if you get out of hand. There are buckets of soapy water in the back corner, and you'll find scrub brushes in the cabinet to their right."

Finished giving instructions, their Professor got up and went into her office, which was adjacent to the classroom, and shut the door.

"Ugh, I could be doing so many other things right now!" James cried. "I could be out practicing on my broom."

"So could I!" Andrew agreed.

"Yeah!" Zacharias chimed in.

James and Andrew exchanged a look and then turned to Zacharias.

"What are you even doing here?" James demanded.

Zacharias frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? I messed up my potion, same as you."

"We didn't – "

"But you knew what would happen when you threw in the hellebore," Andrew said, interrupting James. "You saw what happened to us and still did it anyway. Don't you think that was a little stupid? You could have avoided all this so easily."

"I couldn't let the two of you serve detention all alone!" Zacharias exclaimed as they carried the last of the potions out of the storeroom. "When the two of you got in trouble, I knew I had to get detention as well. Best friends always do stuff together."

Andrew looked at Zacharias with a puzzled expression. "You think we're best friends?" he asked.

"Well not you, obviously," Zacharias laughed. "Me and James. You're just unlucky enough to have been James' cauldron-mate. Or maybe it was James who was unlucky. I bet it was you who threw in the hellebore and got him in trouble. James would never do something like that."

"Actually, it was Jason Nott who did it," James interjected. "So you can stop blaming Andrew. And for the record, we're not best friends. If anyone's my best friend, it's Andrew here."

James braced himself for anger or hurt, but Zacharias only chuckled. "Oh James," he said, shaking his head amusedly. "This is just like with our fathers. Your father didn't realize the friendship he had with my father right away. But you'll come around. Don't you worry."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

By the time detention was over, James and Andrew were more than ready to get away from Zacharias.

"Okay, well Gryffindor Tower is this way," James said when they reached the crossroads to their respective common rooms. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll save you a seat in transfiguration, James," Zacharias said.

"Oh, that's really okay," James said, shaking his head. "I think I'll just sit with Andrew like I normally do."

"I'll save the seat anyway," Zacharias assured him. "See you then."

Zacharias turned and headed down to the basement then while James and Andrew began to climb the stairs to the seventh floor.

"I think that guy might be stalking you," Andrew said to James.

"No way," James shook his head. "He's crazy, sure, and totally weird, but he's not a stalker."

"He got detention on purpose because you had it," Andrew reminded him. "He thinks you're best friends. Something's not right here."

"You're just being paranoid," James assured his friend. "Come on, it's not Zacharias we need to be worrying about, it's Jason. The truce didn't work, which means now it's time for payback."

"Finally!" Andrew exclaimed, a smile growing on his face. "Now the fun can begin. We'll start tomorrow, in the library. We need to come up with something good."

"Sounds like a plan," James nodded.

JjJjJjJjJjJjJ

"There's got to be something," James muttered to himself as he scoured the library shelves the following afternoon. "This library's enormous, there's no way that there's _nothing_ useful here."

"How do we even know what we're looking for?" Andrew asked as he flipped through _How to Train a Fwooper for Beginners_.

"Well first of all," James said, reaching for the book his friend was holding and putting it back on the shelf. "You look through books that actually have some prank potential," he finished, handing Andrew _Hexes and Jinxes: the Simple and the Silly_.

Andrew started flipping through the book and sighed. "There's nothing in here besides spells to make fruit sprout legs and tap-dance. We need something that will really get James and Parker good."

"Something to make them realize that we're the last people they want to mess with. Something to make them sorry they ever got out of bed in the morning," James agreed.

"Maybe we should ask someone," Andrew suggested. "Is there a librarian here or something?"

"Yeah, Madam Maxwell," James said. "That's a great idea, I'm sure she'd know where we should look!"

James shut the book he'd been reading (_Curse, or Counter-Curse?_) and led the way to the front desk.

"Madam Maxwell," James said when they arrived. "Would you happen to have any books on pranks?" he asked.

"Pranks?" Madam Maxwell exclaimed. "I'll not be having troublemakers in my library! Out with you!" she cried.

"No, we don't want to cause any trouble," Andrew said, holding out his hands, as if he were surrendering. "We just want to play a trick on some Slytherins."

"I'll have no part in these shenanigans," Madam Maxwell said obstinately. "And I'll have you know that this library will be of no use to you in this regard. This is a place of learning, not of trickery and pranking."

"Are you sure there's not even just one book – "

"Out with you now!" Madam Maxwell exclaimed. "Be on your way."

James and Andrew sighed. Not only was Madam Maxwell no help, but clearly the library would be of no use either. They were going to have to come up with something on their own.

As they headed down the hall towards the staircases, they ran into Molly, who was on her way to the library from the transfiguration courtyard.

"Hey, Molly!" James exclaimed upon seeing her. "Do you know of any books in the library about pranking?" he asked. On the off chance that Madam Maxwell had been lying to them to get rid of them, he'd thought he'd ask her. If Molly didn't know of any pranking books, there probably weren't any.

"What are you playing at?" Molly asked. "You need to be focusing on your studies, not on pranks. You've barely started your first year and already you're falling off the right path."

"It's not like that," James assured her. "We just want to get back at this one Slytherin in particular, and then we're going to be totally focused on school," he promised.

"James," Molly said, placing her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "I'm saying this because I have your best interests at heart, but if you are going to start playing pranks on Slytherins instead of focusing on your schoolwork, I am going to have to write to Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny."

"What? No!" James exclaimed. "Don't do that!"

"I'm sorry James, but this is a crucial time for you," Molly explained. "This is the time where you decide what kind of student you're going to be. This will affect your entire future. If you don't start on the right path now, you won't do well on your O.W.L.s, and then you won't get into the N.E.W.T. classes you want, and then you won't have the right courses to get the job you want. Trust me, this is for your own good."

"Okay fine," James said, holding up his hands in defeat. "I won't prank Jason. Just don't write to my parents."

"Okay," Molly said slowly. "I won't. But if I hear that you're not giving your studies your 100%, I'll be checking up on you." James nodded and Molly smiled, walking away towards the library.

"Are you serious?" Andrew cried. "Just like that, you're giving up?"

"Not a chance!" James exclaimed. "My cousin's just crazy and loves butting into things that aren't her business. I said that to get her off my back."

"Phew," Andrew said. "I thought you'd gone soft on me."

"We still need to come up with something," James declared then as they made their way back to the common room. "If the library's not going to be any help, we'll have to think of something on our own."

"We could switch his black ink for red ink!" Andrew exclaimed suddenly. "Then all his notes would have to be red!"

James paused and stared at his friend in disbelief. He'd thought with all Andrew's talk of revenge, that he might actually be good at it. He was now finding out that Andrew was as miserable at pranking as he seemed to be.

"Oh! Or we could hide one of his textbooks under his desk so that he can't find it," Andrew suggested.

"This is pathetic," James sighed, throwing up his hands and stomping down the hall. "We can't think of anything! I'm named after two of the greatest pranksters of all time and one of them is related to me by blood. Not to mention all the Weasley blood I've got on Mum's side. I should be able to come up with something!"

"Here's a plan," Andrew said enthusiastically. He paused for dramatic effect, but James' hopes weren't very high. "We hide behind a suit of armor and when he walks by, we jump out and scare him!"

James growled in frustration. "This is hopeless!" he cried. "We're never going to think of anything!"

"Come on, we'll think of something," Andrew insisted in determination.

"No, I give up," James declared, starting up the stairs. "Maybe we'll have better ideas tomorrow."

"You know, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one actually voicing ideas," Andrew pointed out.

"Well then maybe we'll both have better ideas tomorrow," James corrected himself as they walked down the stairs.


	4. December Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start_

Chapter 4: December 2016

"Welcome back son!" Harry Potter exclaimed as James ran into his family's open arms. "How was your first term?"

"Great," James lied.

"No problems with any Slytherins?" James' father inquired.

"Nope," James shook his head. "All's well at Hogwarts."

"Well that's a relief," Ginny said. "We all know your father could never resist a Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry in our day."

"You know I never initiated any of my run-ins with the Slytherins," Harry insisted.

"I believe you Dad," James said. "Slytherins are really good instigators, and they definitely hold a grudge. So I've heard," he hurried to add.

"I'm just glad you're not getting involved in anything like that," his mother said as the three of them made their way out of the train station. "You should just focus on your studies."

"And making the Quidditch team, of course," his father added. "Just because you weren't able to usurp my position as youngest seeker in a century doesn't mean you can't make the team next year. I'm sure the school has plenty of practice snitches you can train with over the winter."

James felt his heart sink as he tried to avoid making eye contact with his father. "Right," he agreed. "Yeah, definitely I'll do that." He couldn't bring himself to tell his father that Madame Volant thought he'd make a better chaser than seeker. It would break the man's heart.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"James! You're home!" Lily cried the minute her older brother walked through the door. Jumping up from where she'd been sitting on the floor, the eight-year-old ran to the door and flung herself at him, wrapping her little limbs around his torso. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too Lil," James replied, hugging her back. "And you Al," he added, nodding at his significantly calmer younger brother who stood a few paces away.

"Good to have you back," Albus replied.

"Where's Luna?" Ginny asked, coming in behind James while Harry brought up James' trunk.

"In the backyard," Albus replied. "She's digging for kyrazecs – apparently they're some kind of worm that are common around here and they supposedly are a key ingredient in a potion she wants to brew to make her dirigible plums grow faster."

"Great," Ginny sighed. "I'll go and find her. Did you at least have a fun afternoon?"

"Albus and me played _Cauldrons and Curses_," Lily declared, naming one of the Potter family's favorite board games.

"That's nice," Ginny smiled as she made her way towards the back door to locate their absent-minded babysitter.

"What was Hogwarts like?" Lily asked once their mother was gone. "Did you make any friends? Did you make any enemies?"

James hesitated. He considered telling his siblings about Jason Nott, but decided against it. Albus might be able to keep things secret from their parents, but Lily certainly wouldn't.

"Well I don't know about enemies, but I did make a new friend," James revealed. "His name's Andrew and he's pretty cool."

"Not as cool as me though, right?" Lily demanded.

"Of course not," James rolled his eyes. "Nobody's as cool as you, Lil."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Soon Christmas Eve was upon the Potter/Weasley clan and James and his family were preparing to head to the Burrow.

"Are you going to play in the family Quidditch game this year?" Albus wondered.

James hesitated. "I'm not sure," he confessed.

"Seriously?" Albus inquired. "I'd have assumed you'd be jumping at the opportunity."

"I don't know," James shrugged. "It's not like I really know much about flying. I've only just started my lessons, so I'm not very good yet. Maybe next year…"

"You know that won't work," Albus insisted. "Louis flew last year and he did great. You have no excuses."

"I guess not," James muttered. If he wasn't going to be able to get out of the game, he would have to make a decision. Would he be a seeker, or a chaser?

Before Albus could continue the conversation, Lily and their parents arrived in the living room with the family bag of Floo Powder and everyone flooed to the Burrow.

When James arrived, he happily greeted his grandparents and his aunts and uncles. Everyone wanted to know how his first term at Hogwarts had gone. Since James couldn't very well tell them about his conflict with Nott, his multiple detentions, or his ongoing dilemma in flying class about whether to pursue seeking or chasing, he instead regaled the group with stories of his new stalker, Zacharias Smith.

"I remember Smith," his Aunt Hermione nodded. "Smith senior, I mean. He wasn't even in our year, he was a year below us. We barely knew him, except for him being in the DA."

"Well apparently he told his son a different story," James declared. "Because he's under the impression we need to be best friends because our parents were also best friends."

"That's ridiculous!" Ron cried. "Smith hated Harry back in school. Was always challenging him on things and pretending he was better than the rest of us. Not much of a Hufflepuff, that one."

"His son doesn't sound much different," Charlie observed. "Sounds like he's trying to use James to climb some kind of social ladder."

"Well if that's what he's trying to do, then he's going to fail miserably," James admitted. "Because despite being Harry Potter's son, I apparently hold very little social standing at Hogwarts." He thought of Jason Nott and revised his statement. "In fact, if anything, it's the opposite."

"What are you talking about?" his father asked, concern in his voice. "Are you having trouble with your classmates because of me? You didn't mention anything."

"No, of course not," James shook his head. "Forget what I said. Nobody treats me any different because of who you are. If anything, I'm kind of invisible."

"Well we all know that's a lie," George said. "No Potter can go to Hogwarts and stay completely invisible."

"Okay, so maybe not totally invisible," James yielded. "But not totally in the spotlight either."

At that moment, Lucy arrived through the floo system with her family, giving the family a new Hogwarts first year to grill and giving James the opportunity to slip away to the fourth floor to join his cousins.

"Where are Teddy and Victoire?" he wondered when he got there to find them missing.

"They decided not to play this year," Dominique informed him. "I mean, Teddy's working now, so really he should be down with the adults. And Victoire… well she's getting a little old for this game too. She's a sixth year after all."

"Teddy played when he was a sixth year," James protested.

"Face it James," Dominique said. "We can pretty much write the both of them off from hide-and-seek for the rest of time. They've grown out of it. One day you probably will too."

"Well that won't be for a long time," James insisted.

The cousins waited a few minutes longer, until Lucy was able to escape the relentless questioning of the adults to join them.

"Where's Molly?" Fred wondered when she arrived alone.

"She's decided to opt out for this year," Lucy announced. "She has a lot of homework that needs to get done."

"I find it hard to believe that she has so much homework and so little time that she needs to do it on Christmas Eve," Louis muttered.

"Just leave her be for today," Lucy pleaded. "I don't know what it is, but something's clearly bothering her. I think we just need to give her some space."

"Who's going to be in charge then?" Hugo wondered. "Usually Molly is always in charge."

"We don't need someone to be in charge," Dominique declared. "We're all old enough to know where we're not allowed to hide. Now all we need is someone to volunteer to be the first counter."

Everyone looked around the landing at each other, all hoping that someone else would volunteer and save them from having to do it. When nobody volunteered, Dominique sighed.

"Maybe we do need someone in charge then," she said.

"Or you could just do it," Rose pointed out. "Since you're the one who brought it up."

"That's hardly fair!" Dominique cried.

"All in favor of Dominique being first counter?" Rose put it to a vote.

James immediately raised his hand, along with all his cousins save Dominique.

Dominique made a face. "Fine," she huffed. "I'll count." She covered her eyes and started right away. "One… two… three…"

James bolted. His first instinct was to head upwards, but so many of his cousins chose that route that instead he made for the stairs leading down. He bypassed the third floor, being the floor with the least opportunities for hiding spots and ended up on the second floor, searching for a place to hide in his Uncle George's old room.

There were all the usual spots, of course, but James didn't want to hide in a predictable place. He wanted to win the game, not lose it. As he paced back and forth across the room, hearing Dominique's loud voice counting out the seconds, he noticed something off about one of the floorboards. Kneeling down, he knocked on it, only to discover that the other side was hollow. Carefully, he grasped the board and pried it off the floor, and to his surprise and delight, he discovered a hole big enough for him to squeeze into.

He shifted the floorboard back into place above him just as Dominique's countdown finished and he marvelled over his discovery. Nobody would ever find him down here! None of the cousins could know about this hiding spot, or else they'd be using it right now. Which meant that he was unlikely ever to be found down here.

Turning his head to the side in an effort to get more comfortable, since he knew he'd likely be trapped for a while, James discovered that the hole was not only a great hiding space, but a great storage space. Next to him, there were a series of makeshift shelves on which countless jars and bottles rested, covered in dust and with faded labels. James picked one up and brushed away the dust in an attempt to read the label.

_Nosebleed solution – test batch #3_, the vial read.

James did a double-take. This must be his uncle George's very first laboratory for his joke products. The Skiving Snackboxes were one of the first products he's ever invented, and nosebleed nougat was one of the original snackbox varieties. It wasn't a secret that Grandmother Weasley hadn't approved of George's business endeavors at first and that she'd gone on many a rampage through his room, throwing out anything that looked remotely like a joke product. Somehow though, George had still managed to produce his merchandise and operate an owl-order service before opening his first store. Was this where he'd hidden his masterpieces?

Just then, James heard footsteps above him and he froze, holding himself perfectly still. He barely even let himself breathe, trying to ensure that Dominique wouldn't hear him and think to look underneath the floors. After a painstaking two minutes of searching though, he heard the footsteps retreat and he relaxed, knowing that it would be a while before she was back for a second sweep.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Dominique never found James, and in the end, he crawled out of the hole in the floor when he heard he call out her surrender, making sure to position the floorboard back over the hole so that nobody but him would ever find it again.

They played a few more rounds of hide-and-seek before they were called down for the family Quidditch game, and when they were, James suddenly wished he was back in the hole.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lucy asked him, when she saw that he wasn't moving towards the stairs.

"Everyone's going to expect me to play," James admitted. "I already talked to Albus about it this morning. There's no way I can get out of it."

"Well if you really don't want to play, then you don't have to play," Lucy informed him. "But I don't think that's the problem. I think you do want to play."

James sighed. "Look Luce, that speech you gave me about being my own person was great and all, but I'm just not sure I'm ready to announce to everyone that I'm not going to be a seeker like they all hoped."

"If you're not ready to tell them, that's fine," Lucy replied. "If you'd rather seek today, I won't judge you for it. But you can't seek your whole life. They're going to find out someday, if you ever want to try out as a chaser. You can postpone for now, but you can't postpone forever. Not if you truly want to live up to your potential, like Madame Volant said."

"Yeah," James muttered. For some reason, this time Lucy's speech didn't make him feel much better. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time left to make a decision. Reluctantly, he made his way downstairs and outside to the makeshift Quidditch pitch, where he was immediately called over by his Uncle Bill. Apparently the teams had already been decided.

On James' team were his Uncle Bill, his Aunt Angelina, and his Uncle Ron, while on the opposing team were both his parents, along with Uncle George and Uncle Charlie. It seemed that Teddy and Victoire were missing, and Louis had immediately opted out when it became clear that Teddy wasn't going to be playing, leaving the teams four against four.

"So James, are you ready to play seeker against your father?" Bill asked as he took a few practice swings with his beater's bat and Ron pulled on a pair of keeper's gloves.

"Um…" James hesitated. It was now or never. His heart was racing and his stomach felt like it was housing a swarm of butterflies. "Actually… If you don't mind, Aunt Angelina… I'd like to try out being a chaser."

Shocked, his aunt and uncles all turned in his direction.

"Chaser, really?" Ron asked. "I guess that makes sense. Ginny always made a good seeker, but chasing was in her blood."

"I'd be happy to play seeker," Angelina smiled. "I've always wanted to try it out, and now I have the opportunity."

James felt himself smiling too. "Cool," he said, grabbing a broom and mounting it.

The two teams flew into the air and faced off. When James flew to meet his mother instead of his father, he immediately heard the gossip from the sidelines begin. But he held his head high and ignored his younger cousins, instead looking from one parent to another to gauge their reaction.

"Well, well, well," his mother said, donning an evil smile. "Looks like the two of us will be competing today. Good luck son."

James glanced at his father, and was relieved to see that he also was smiling.

"You're not angry that I'm not seeking?" James wondered.

Harry shook his head. "Of course not," he answered. "I'm just happy to be playing Quidditch with my son."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

When Grandmother Weasley made the call that supper was ready, neither team had caught the snitch, but James' team was up by thirty points, making them the winners. James suspected that his mother had gone easy on him, but she insisted that he was just that good.

When supper was over, the family gathered in the living room for Secret Santa, after which they started saying their goodbyes. James' parents had volunteered to stay behind and help Grandmother Weasley clean up, leaving James, Albus, and Lily to entertain themselves until it was time to go.

As James sat in the living room, watching his family members disappear into the fireplace one by one, he found himself thinking of Uncle George's secret laboratory under the floor, and suddenly it occurred to him. He and Andrew had been looking for a way to get back at Nott, but all this time James had been forgetting that the best prankster he knew was his uncle!

Hurrying to catch him before he left, James ran over to where George was hugging Charlie goodbye.

"Hey kid," George greeted him when he saw him. "That was some game you played earlier!"

"Thanks," James smiled, allowing himself to feel proud, even though he knew beating his own family members was hardly a victory. "Listen, can I talk to you in private for a second before you go?"

"Sure," George agreed, leading James into the next room. "Is something wrong?"

James hesitated in answering and George's expression fell, realizing that something was indeed wrong. "James, what is it? Have you talked to your parents about this?"

"No," James shook his head furiously. "And they can't know about this either. Especially not my dad."

"I don't know if I can promise that…" George said, unsure. "If you're in trouble…"

"It's not like that," James shook his head. He knew he couldn't tell his uncle the whole truth, lest he go blabbing to his parents. So James decided to amend his story a bit. "Somehow I've managed to find myself in a bit of a… pranking war with a classmate."

"A pranking war you say?" George said, his whole expression perking up. "Who with?"

"Just this guy. He's in Gryffindor with me. It's all for a laugh," James lied. If he mentioned Nott, or even Slytherin house, he knew this would be a whole different conversation. "The problem is, I'm having trouble coming up with a really good prank. I was hoping you could help me out with that."

"You've come to the right uncle," George smirked. "I promise, with my help, you'll be sure to win this war."

"Thanks uncle George!" James smiled. "So what should I do?"

"Whoa! Slow down!" George exclaimed. "I need time to think this out."

"What do you mean?" James frowned. "Can't I just use one of your old pranks?"

"A recycled prank? For my nephew? Not a chance! We're going to come up with a whole new prank. I promise, it'll be epic."

"Well alright," James shrugged, figuring either way, he needed his uncle's help.

"Once you're back at Hogwarts, I'll send an owl with instructions on how to pull off the greatest prank Hogwarts has ever seen," George declared. "But there is one thing you'll have to do before the holidays are over."

"What's that?" James wondered.

"You're going to have to steal something – actually, let's call it borrowing – you're going to have to borrow something. From your father."

"You want me to steal from my father?" James cried.

"Not steal. Borrow," George clarified. "Besides, it's not even borrowing. It belongs at Hogwarts, in the hands of someone who wants to get up to some mischief. Not in the Head Auror's house gathering dust."

"What is it?" James wondered, feeling nervous at the prospect of stealing from his father, no matter what George chose to call it.

"A very special piece of parchment," George informed him.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

After James and George finished their conversation, George flooed home and James tried to decide the best course of action for stealing this bit of parchment. George said it would probably be with his father's most prized possessions, and James knew that that meant the locked bottom drawer of his office desk. The drawer was locked with magic, but James suspected that a simple _alohomora_ would do the trick and open it. Up until now, there was no reason to lock it against magic, since none of Harry's children even had a wand. James just hoped the security hadn't been upgraded since he'd been away at school.

The trickiest part would be getting into his father's office. None of the kids were ever supposed to go in there, and James would never even attempt it with either of his parents in the house. If Luna were to babysit again before term started back, James knew he'd find a moment to sneak away, but Ginny had made it clear that she wanted to spend as much time as possible with James before he went back to school. He realized that tonight might be his only shot.

Feigning exhaustion, James stumbled into the kitchen holding his head as he approached his mother, washing dishes at the sink.

"James, what's wrong?" Ginny asked him, worried.

"I'm not feeling very well," James lied. "My head hurts and I think I'd like to just lie down in my own bed."

"Oh dear," Grandmother Weasley exclaimed. "Ginny, you go ahead and take the boy home. I can finish up here with Harry."

"No," James said in a rush. "Um… I mean, that's okay. You don't have to leave yet mum. If you give me some floo powder, I can just go home and lie down, and you can finish up here."

"I don't know…" Ginny hesitated. "I don't like the idea of leaving you all alone in that big house."

"I'll be fine," James assured her. "I'm just going to go straight to sleep. Besides, I'm at Hogwarts now. I think I'm responsible enough to be home alone for half an hour."

Ginny looked back and forth between James and her mother, torn between her choices.

"Trust me mum," James insisted. "I'll be fine."

"Alright," Ginny decided. "I'll come and check on you as soon as I'm done here."

"You can use the floo powder on the mantle, dear," Grandmother Weasley added, giving James a hug. "I hope you feel better."

"Thanks," James nodded, sure to keep his expression looking pained to maintain the ruse.

Having said his goodbyes, James hurried back to the living room and grabbed a handful of floo powder. He stepped into the fireplace, threw the powder on the ashes, and said, "Number 12 Grimmauld Place."

In moments, James was sucked up into the floo vortex. He kept his eyes shut from soot and ash as he felt himself get thrown around, bouncing around from fireplace to fireplace until the network spat him out in his own living room where Kreacher was doing some dusting.

"The young master is home alone?" Kreacher asked, observing that none of the rest of the family was following.

"I had a headache," James told the old house elf. "I'm just going to lie down."

James sidled out of the room and hurried down the hall and up the stairs, hoping that Kreacher wouldn't follow and tattle on him to his father about what he was about to do. When he was sure he was alone, James came to his father's office door and slipped inside, careful to close it behind him lest Kreacher climb the stairs and see it ajar and become suspicious.

Once inside, James got out his wand and walked over to his father's desk. He carefully cast the charm and was pleased to find that as he'd suspected, the drawer was under minimum security. It popped open and James peered inside.

James wasn't sure exactly what he'd been expected when he finally got a look inside the top-secret drawer, but the sight he was met with was not at all it. There was a broken piece of mirror, the purpose of which James could not understand. There was a very battered up looking snitch that didn't look like it could even fly anymore. There was a letter fragment with a photo of a baby that looked a lot like James riding a toy broom. It occurred to James that the picture was probably of his father. There was a small bag, inside which were the shattered pieces of what appeared to be some kind of necklace, or locket. There were a few letters that appeared to be from James' mother. After skimming them, James deduced that they were written while his father had been in Auror training, off in some unknown location. At the bottom of the drawer, there was a folded up travelling cloak. And then, just as George had said, there was a folded up bit of parchment that was completely blank.

Grabbing the blank parchment, still completely at a loss as to what possible use he could have for it, James shut the drawer, re-initiating the locking spell, and quickly slipped out of the office and up to his room, where he quickly got into bed. Just as he was pulling the covers over himself, he heard his family returning from the Burrow and he breathed a sigh of relief that he'd managed to pull it off. Whatever George had planned for him next, he knew now that he could do it.


	5. January Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start _

Chapter 5: January 2017

When James returned to Hogwarts, he waited and waited for his uncle George's owl. He was antsy to get started working on this epic prank George had promised him, and when a week went by and no owl, James started to get worried.

"He's just been having me on," James declared one evening in the dorm. "He never meant to help me pull off this prank."

"That doesn't really sound like your uncle," Andrew pointed out. "At least not the way you've always described him to me."

"But he's an adult now," James cried. "He must have turned responsible at some point!"

"A responsible adult who owns a joke shop?" Andrew frowned. "That doesn't sound right."

"And I bet this bit of parchment is just that – an old bit of parchment. I bet it doesn't do anything and he's just trying to throw me off," James continued.

"I don't know," Andrew shrugged, looking dubiously at the bit of parchment. "It really doesn't look like much, to be honest."

"I'm just going to throw it in the fire," James declared, grabbing the parchment and heading for the door.

He came to the stairs and descended to the common room, having to awkwardly flatten himself against the wall at one point when a sixth year passed him on the stairs. When he came to the common room, he headed straight for the fire, ready to be rid of uncle George's old tricks. He wasn't helping James to prank Nott, he was pulling his own prank on James.

Just before James could throw away the bit of parchment, Andrew came flying down the stairs behind him with a letter in hand.

"James stop!" he cried urgently. "This just came! It's from your uncle!"

James retracted his hand and turned towards Andrew. He took the letter and opened it, suddenly all of his annoyance and frustration replaced with excitement and curiosity.

"What are you waiting for?" Andrew demanded. "Read it!"

So James did.

_Dear James,_

_I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. It's been a while since my last prank at Hogwarts, and I want this one to be worthy of my return… through you of course. I've almost finished the fine tuning, and once I have I'll tell you the run of it. You'll notice I've sent along some packages._

"Packages?" James paused in his reading of the letter to look at Andrew questioningly.

"They're back in the dorm," Andrew confirmed. "Just didn't bother carrying them down."

James nodded and went back to his reading.

_ These contain vital supplies that you will need to pull of my masterful prank. Go ahead and open them, but don't use them until you know the plan. I had to steal them from the storeroom, and if your Uncle Ron notices they're missing he'll have some questions. _

"It's your shop Uncle George!" James muttered to himself, shaking his head.

_Finally, I'm sure you're wondering about that bit of parchment I had you borrow from your father. Now, in case you're having second thoughts about stealing it, I'm the one who gave it to him, so it's only right that I decide who gets it next. Anyhow, just tap your wand to it and say '_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_' and you'll see what it does. And whenever you want it to go back to being a bit of old parchment, do the same, but say '_mischief managed_'._

James looked down at the parchment again and then at the students all around and decided to wait until he was back upstairs to test it out.

_I promise, you'll have the plan in full before this time next week. Until then, practice using that parchment, and make sure you read the instructions for the extendable ears, because they're a new variety that we've just come out with and they work differently than the old ears._

_Talk to you again soon._

_Uncle George_

"And?" Andrew asked when he saw that James had finished reading. "Is it masterful?"

"I don't know," James replied. "He didn't actually tell me the plan yet. But he did tell me how to get the parchment to work."

"Let's see it then," Andrew said eagerly.

James shook his head. "Not down here. Come on."

He led his friend back up to the first-year dorms and shut the door firmly behind them.

"Who knows what might happen?" he explained. "This is my uncle George we're talking about."

"Good point," Andrew agreed. "But come on, we're alone now, so let's see it."

Nervously, James produced his wand and tapped it to the parchment. In a very serious and controlled voice, he recited the words Uncle George had written down. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he declared.

And then, slowly at first and then faster and faster, ink started appearing on the parchment, making shapes and forming words. At first, neither boy understood what was happening, but then something in James' head clicked and he suddenly recognized the layout of the Great Hall.

"It's a map of Hogwarts!" he exclaimed.

"What was that doing in your dad's locked desk drawer?" Andrew frowned.

"You got me," James shrugged, unconcerned. "But look! Look at all these names moving around. This must be – hang on I have to test this."

For about ten minutes, James fumbled with the map, trying to get his bearings – after all, he'd never thought about the layout of Hogwarts in this kind of way before. He knew how to get from point A to point B, but he hadn't considered the overall layout before. Finally, he located Gryffindor Tower and sure enough, in the first year boys' dormitories, there were two names. James Potter II and Andrew MacDonald.

"Go down to the common room and come back up again," James ordered his friend.

Andrew did as he was told, and James watched in fascination as Andrew's name on the map also moved from the dorm down to the common room, did a lap, and then came back upstairs.

"This is so cool!" James exclaimed when his friend returned. He explained what he'd discovered, and Andrew became equally enthused.

"No wonder your uncle thought we should have this," Andrew said. "It'll make sneaking around a piece of cake."

"Sneaking around?" James repeated, thinking about that for a moment. If he'd found this map in his father's desk, there had to be a reason. Uncle George said he'd given it to his father at some point, probably when they were all at Hogwarts together. Did that mean his father had gotten up to mischief when he was at school too? All this time, James had thought Harry's only activities from the age of eleven to the age of seventeen were fighting dark forces. But maybe – just maybe – Harry had done some questionable teenage shenanigan type stuff too.

"Let's open the rest," Andrew said excitedly, turning to the two packages that were sitting on James' bed.

James wrenched himself from thoughts of his father and joined Andrew in opening the packages. As George had indicated in the letter, there was a box containing extendable ears. The difference between these ears and regular extendable ears was that they didn't come with a string attaching them. The box indicated that they could be used at wider ranges and that because they were magically attuned to each other, they didn't have to be connected to work.

The second box was a large box of puking pastilles. Puking pastilles were one of George's original inventions, from even before the joke shop got off the ground, and James thought this was a good sign. Whatever the prank turned out to be, it would be a nice classic.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The next week went by even slower than the last, but finally, on Thursday, Uncle George's owl came with the directions for carrying out the prank. James read the letter first, then passed it over to Andrew. When Andrew finished reading it, James read it over once more quickly, and then the boys smiled at each other. It really was a great plan. Uncle George had really come through for them. And they never would have thought of it on their own.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

They decided to wait until Sunday morning to carry out their prank on Nott. They'd thought about doing it on a weekday, but decided that they wouldn't cause him to miss classes. They weren't monsters, after all. And Saturday was out, because Nott slept in on Saturdays and had Parker Parkinson bring him breakfast back from the Great Hall so that he could eat it in his dorm. Which only left Sunday. And even Uncle George had pointed out that it would have to go down at breakfast, because it was the least busy meal in the kitchens, and they'd never pull something like this off during the crazy hassle of supper.

Before leaving the dorms that morning, James and Andrew triple checked that they had all the supplies they would need. There weren't all that many. Each boy had one of the extendable ears. They'd tested them out already and were confident that they would work at the distance they required. James would take the map, since he was the one going to an out-of-bounds location, and Andrew would only be lurking in the Entrance Hall. Finally, James had the puking pastilles, which they'd crushed into a powder and placed in a vial. Uncle George had been confident that they would work just fine crushed up and neither boy had any reason to doubt him.

Confident that they were ready to go, the two boys began to make their way downstairs. When they came to the main level, they parted ways, Andrew heading to the Entrance Hall, and James going further down to the basement and the kitchens.

When James came to the basement level, he opened the map to make sure nobody was around. He noticed a couple of Hufflepuff students milling around in the basement, and of course a whole bunch of them were in the Hufflepuff common room, but none were in the kitchen corridor, which was where James needed to go.

Despite the assurance from the map that he was alone down here, he crept carefully along the corridor until he came to the paining uncle George had described. It was a bowl of fruit with many different varieties of fruit in it. James identified the pear, and feeling more than a little silly, reached out and tickled it. As Uncle George had predicted, the pear laughed for a moment, but then morphed into a door handle, which James used to open the door to the kitchens.

Inside was a kind of controlled chaos. Smoke rose from frying pans, pots of boiling things threatened to boil over, commands were being screamed from all over the place. But despite all that, the elves inside were working very efficiently, catching things before they fell, stopping things from burning or creating large messes right before it would have happened. James stood and watched the whole thing in awe for a moment, only remembering himself when Andrew's voice became audible.

"James!" the voice was coming from the extendable ear in James' hand. "James, are you there?"

"I'm here," James confirmed, bringing the extendable ear up to his face, to hear and speak more clearly.

"Are you in the kitchen?" Andrew asked.

James nodded and then remembered that Andrew wouldn't be able to see his nod. "Yeah, I'm in the kitchens. And it's just like Uncle George said, the tables are lined up just like they are in the Great Hall. Four long tables for the houses, and one for the professors. They place the food on them, and moments later, it disappears, I assume because it's being sent upstairs."

"Perfect," Andrew said.

"Is Nott up there yet?' James questioned. The whole plan kind of revolved around Nott being in the Great Hall, after all.

"Oh he's here all right," Andrew confirmed. "Left-hand side of the Slytherin table, fourth seat from the front. And he's drinking from the goblet on his right."

"Perfect," James smiled.

One of the things that George had explained in his letter was that the dishes in the Great Hall and in the kitchens didn't move – only the food did. So if James were to, for example, put some puking pastille powder into the goblet here in the kitchens that was directly below where Nott was sitting, the powder would be transported upstairs, and would mix in with Nott's pumpkin juice. Then he would drink from it, not knowing that it had been tampered with, and start vomiting all over the Slytherin table. It was perfect.

Carefully, James entered the kitchens and tried to make his way to the top of the room. Andrew had indicated that Nott was sitting at the fourth seat from the front, and James had to be sure he got the right spot.

"Can we help you with anything, Sir?" a house elf asked, stopping James in his tracks almost immediately.

"Oh, no thank you," James replied. "I actually just wanted to… to speak to that house-elf over there," he pointed to a random house-elf in the direction he wanted to go.

"To Guppy?" the house-elf asked. "Lady can take you to see Guppy if Sir would like."

"No that's alright Lady," James shook his head. "I'll just walk over on my own."

He sidled away from Lady and crossed the room without any more interruptions. When he came to the end of the Slytherin table, he counted four spots from the top of the table and then glanced around to make sure the house-elves around him were all otherwise occupied and not paying attention. When he was satisfied he wouldn't be seen tampering with breakfast, he popped open the vial and tipped a small amount of puking pastille powder into the goblet, shoving the vial back in his pocket as soon as he was done.

"Hello!" a house-elf said suddenly, tugging on James' robes.

James' heart leapt into his throat. He'd been caught. This was it. It was all over.

"Hello," he said nervously to the elf.

"I am Guppy, Sir," the house-elf introduced herself. "Lady said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Oh," James' heartrate slowed to normal again and he regained the ability to breathe. "Right, yes, um… I was just wondering, are you the house-elf that does my laundry?"

"Oh, no Sir, that is Soapy that does the Gryffindors' laundry," Guppy replied. "Does Sir not like the way his laundry is being done? Guppy can mention it to Soapy."

"Oh no, that's alright," James shook his head. "I just wanted to say that my laundry is always very clean, so Soapy is doing a fantastic job."

Guppy smiled at that. "Guppy will tell Soapy so Sir," she declared.

"Alright," James nodded. "Well then, I guess I'd better head out."

He hurried out of the kitchens, eager to get away from both the over-helpful elves and also the scene of the crime. He put the map and extendable ear away and climbed the stairs to the Entrance Hall quickly to meet up with Andrew.

"So? Was it epic?" James asked as soon as he arrived on the main level. "Did he puke on anyone?"

But Andrew didn't have the look of a master prankster. He had the look of failure.

"Did it not work?" James frowned, confused. "Did the pastille not work because we crushed it to a powder? Uncle George was sure it wouldn't change anything."

"That's not it," Andrew shook his head. "It worked, just not on the right person."

"What are you talking about?" James frowned. "Fourth from the front, I counted."

"You put it in the goblet fourth from the back," Andrew said, leading James over to the door to look inside the Great Hall. Sure enough, there was Nott, the fourth seat from the end of the table, and up at the top of the room, Professor Tonks was vanishing large amounts of vomit from the table and surrounding areas.

"This is not my fault," James said immediately. "You said fourth from the front, the front of the room is obviously the top of the room over there by the professors' table."

"The front of the room is obviously here, where the room starts," Andrew protested. "The back of the room is over there, and the end, by the professors' table."

"Ugh!" James exclaimed. "I can't believe we didn't coordinate on which end of the room to call 'front' and 'back'."

"Now we've gone and wasted a perfectly good prank," Andrew frowned.

"Nott is still eating," James said. "Maybe I still have time to go down and try again. After all, I still have some of the powder."

"No, there's no point," Andrew shook his head. "The girl you got by mistake was already throwing up all over, so if Nott started throwing up too, it would look suspicious. And everyone would know something was going on, and then we'd be caught."

"Good point," James sighed in defeat.

With nothing else to do, the two boys headed into the Great Hall and sat down for their own breakfast. They would have to come up with a new masterful plan. James was really not looking forward to owling his uncle George to tell him they'd messed up his masterpiece.

"Out of curiosity," James said. "Who did get the pastille powder in the end?"

Andrew shrugged uninterestedly. "Some Slytherin girl. Fourth year, I think. Nobody we know."

"Lame," James muttered unhappily. "Well, at least we have the map now. That should make sneaking around a ton easier in the future."

"True," Andrew agreed. "We'll come up with a new plan in no time."


	6. February Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start_

Chapter 6: February 2017

With the arrival of February, James and Andrew found themselves consumed with work once again, and very little time to be coming up with pranks. Somehow, their revenge on Nott ended up moving to the backburner while they juggled potions essays, charms projects, transfiguration assignments, and defence practice. The second term was proving much more challenging than the first term and some days, it was all James could do to stay afloat.

One afternoon in herbology, to the students' general dismay, Professor Longbottom announced that they would be starting a new project. Upon hearing the groans, Professor Longbottom insisted that it would be a fun project, and even promised to partner them up to make it a little easier. Though James suspected that a partnered project would have more work to it than an individual project, he supposed it would be nice to have a partner to bounce ideas off of at the very least.

When Professor Longbottom announced that he would be choosing the pairs, everyone groaned again, louder this time. When Professors chose the pairs, it always meant disaster. They would either intentionally choose the pairs to get enemies working together in the hopes of fostering unity, or they would pick pairs at random, which usually resulted in complete chaos.

Professor Longbottom went for the pairs at random approach, and had everyone write their names on a scrap of parchment, and then deliver them to the front. He then picked two bits of parchment at a time to create the pairs. As James sat at his workbench, he hoped to Merlin he didn't get stuck with Jason Nott. If he did, he might as well submit his project for a 'T' today, because it would be less trouble, and would probably be the same grade he'd get if he tried. Nott's only goal in life seemed to be to make James' life miserable and so far, he'd had a great deal of success.

When James' name was finally called, he was at first pleased that he didn't get partnered with Nott. Then he realized who his partner was and wondered if he'd not rather have been paired with Nott.

As soon as Professor Longbottom had finished announcing the pairs and explaining the project, he indicated that the students should get into their pairs and start brainstorming. James stayed put while Andrew went to join Lena Monette from Ravenclaw. Almost moments after Andrew's seat was vacated, it was filled again by James' partner; Zacharias Smith.

"Well we lucked out pretty good there, didn't we?" Zacharias spoke first. "Usually when the Professors do these kinds of things, you end up working with someone you hate, or someone you barely know. How often do you end up getting to work with your best friend?"

"We're not best friends," James said, probably for the millionth time. He couldn't understand why Smith didn't seem to understand him when he said so, but he would continue saying it until the message got across.

"Sure, sure," Zacharias nodded, almost patronizingly. "You're still under the delusion that your best friend has to be in the same house as you. That's alright. You'll come around. We have plenty of time after all, since we have to work on this project."

James groaned and dropped his head onto the table, banging it a couple of times. As he did so, he felt even more confident about one thing. This project would have been so much easier with Nott as his partner.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Zacharias insisted on meeting up in the library after classes that day, which James agreed to only because the project did have to get done, and because he wanted it to get done as quickly as possible. When he arrived in the library after history of magic, Zacharias was already there, practically bouncing up and down in his seat, waiting for James.

"Oh good, you came," Zacharias said.

"Yeah," James nodded. "So listen, for the project, I was thinking – "

"Before we get started on that," Zacharias interrupted. "I wanted to give you something."

"Give me something?" James frowned, getting an immediate bad feeling about this. "Uh… what is it?" he asked warily.

"This!" Zacharias exclaimed, producing a lanyard made of weaved bits of thread in Gryffindor colors.

When James didn't immediately seem to recognize the item, Zacharias clarified for him. "It's a friendship bracelet. See? I've used red and yellow thread, red to symbolize Gryffindor and yellow to symbolize Hufflepuff."

"Oh," James said, his eyes widening as he realized how completely insane Zacharias was. "Right. Um… thanks?"

"Here, I'll put it on your wrist for you," Zacharias said, grabbing at James' wrist and pulling it forward.

James immediately retracted it, not wanting the monstrosity tied on for good.

"Actually Zacharias, I don't know if you've noticed, but it doesn't really look like it's a Gryffindor/Hufflepuff combination," he said.

"What do you mean?" Zacharias frowned.

"Well, the yellow is coming across as gold looking, so really it just looks like Gryffindor colors. If I wear it, people won't understand what it means, they'll just think I'm wearing a Gryffindor bracelet, which let's be honest, would be lame," James claimed.

Zacharias pondered this for a moment. "You're right," he finally declared. "It would be lame. Nobody wears a friendship bracelet of themselves."

"Right," James nodded, glad to have at least convinced Zacharias not to make him wear the bracelet.

"Well I'll just have to keep working on it," Zacharias declared, pushing his chair back and getting up.

"Wait, where are you going?" James asked confused. "We still have our project to work on."

"No time," Zacharias shook his head. "Not until I've rectified this friendship bracelet problem. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll have it fixed in no time."

Before James could protest, Zacharias had disappeared.

James dropped his head to the table and banged it a couple of times. He really wished he'd gotten partnered with literally _anyone else_.

Sighing, and pulling himself back together, James decided not to waste his time in the library. Andrew was meeting with Lena Monette about their project, and he was pretty sure Lucy and her two friends were doing the same with their respective partners. It wasn't like there was anything else to do, so he took out his other homework and got started on that, getting it out of the way so that he and Zacharias could hopefully focus on herbology tomorrow.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"He made you a _friendship bracelet_?" Ashley practically cooed later that night when James revealed how his project meeting with his Hufflepuff stalker had gone. "That's really sweet."

"It's not sweet, it's weird," James insisted, wondering not for the first time why he always agreed to hang out with Lucy and her friends.

"It can be both," Ashley insisted. "It can be sweet and weird at the same time."

"Well I don't think it's sweet at all," James declared. "I think it's 100% weird, with a little bit of creepy thrown in there."

"You can't have more than 100%," Lucy pointed out, being difficult on purpose.

James rolled his eyes. "You knew what I meant," he said. "Stop trying to make things harder than they need to be."

"I still can't believe you got partnered with him," Andrew said. "I mean, what are the odds?"

"One in thirty-nine," Tina replied softly.

"You did that math awfully fast," Andrew pointed out, probably a little put out that his rhetorical question had been answered.

Tina shrugged. "There are forty kids in our year. James is one of them, and he had to get partnered with one of the others. There are thirty-nine others. Hence, one in thirty-nine."

Andrew grumbled a little at this, but James ran with it.

"One in thirty-nine!" he exclaimed. "Which means I had thirty-eight other chances to get partnered with someone else. Thirty-eight! And instead I get Smith."

"Thirty-nine really isn't that many," Ashley pointed out. "It's not like, one in a million or something like that. One in thirty-nine is actually very likely odds."

"None of you got partnered with him," James muttered, crossing his arms.

"No," Lucy agreed. "But then again, we couldn't have, because you did."

James blew out a breath, but decided to drop the subject. There was no use denying it. Zacharias Smith was his partner, and he was going to have to live with that.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The next day, James had just taken a seat in potions when Jason Nott sidled in next to him in the free seat he'd intended to save for Andrew.

"What do you want?" James demanded outright, not in the mood for Nott and his hatred/revenge plots. Dealing with Zacharias was enough for one week.

"Just taking a seat. In class. Where I'm supposed to sit," Nott replied innocently. "Are you saying I'm not allowed to sit here?"

"What I'm saying is why don't you go wit with Parkinson over there where you normally sit?" James gestured in the direction of the Slytherin boy's usual table.

"Well as you can see, Parker is sitting with Leah Pritchard today," he named one of the Slytherin girls in their year. "I don't want to intrude, so I thought I'd choose another seat. This one was open, so I took it."

"Well you can choose another one now," James declared. "Move!"

Just then, Professor Abbott-Longbottom came up behind them, having entered the classroom from the door at the back.

"Is everything alright here boys?" she asked.

"Professor, James is telling me I'm not allowed to sit here," Nott whined, as if he were somehow the injured party in all this. "But I thought we didn't have assigned seats."

Professor Abbott-Longbottom looked torn. James could tell she didn't like the idea of James and Nott sitting next to each other, but at the same time, Nott was correct in saying there were no assigned seats.

"James, I'm afraid you're going to have to let Jason sit there," she replied. "But you're welcome to find another seat if you'd prefer."

"Right," James said, the matter decided. He gathered up his things and stood to find a new seat, but to his dismay, found that the classroom had completely filled up while he'd been arguing with Nott, and there were no free seats anywhere else.

He looked hopefully at Andrew, but he was sitting with Ashley and shrugged his shoulders apologetically. Lucy was already seated next to Tina, and James knew he'd never be able to convince one of his friends to take his place with Nott.

"Looks like you're going to have to sit with me today," Nott said, a small smile on his face.

James closed his eyes and tried to clear his head. He needed to think fast, before Professor Abbott-Longbottom started class and he lost the opportunity. On the one hand, he could just suck it up and sit next to Nott for the duration of the lesson. They weren't brewing anything, so it wasn't like Nott could throw something dangerous into his potion. Then again, they were in the potions classroom, and there were some dangerous things in here. Nott was obviously up to something if he was pulling stunts like this, and James knew he didn't want to find out what it was.

So, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to move, James walked over to where Zacharias Smith was sitting with his fellow Hufflepuff, Kyle Ellison.

"Zacharias, hello," James said, stopping in front of their table.

"James, what a pleasure," Zacharias replied. "How are you today?"

"Well actually, not so good," James replied. He gestured to Nott and the free seat beside him. "I somehow managed to get stuck sitting beside Nott, and you know how he has it out for me. I don't think sitting with him is a good idea. So I was wondering if I might be able to sit here instead?"

"Of course!" Zacharias exclaimed excitedly. "Go on Kyle, you don't mind sitting next to Jason, would you?"

Kyle looked like he would indeed mind, but that he wasn't about to argue with Zacharias about it. James suspected that Zacharias probably drove the Hufflepuffs crazy with his wild notions about the friendship the two of them supposedly shared, and Kyle seemed to see that he wasn't going to win if he tried to protest.

"There you are James," Zacharias smiled once Kyle had vacated the seat.

James tentatively sat down and spread out his notes and things, preparing for the start of class. As Professor Abbott-Longbottom started the lecture, Zacharias randomly started nudging his foot with his own. Unsure what he thought he was doing, and weirded out by it, James tucked his feet under his stool and scooted a little further away from the Hufflepuff boy. He vaguely wondered if it might have been the better choice to stay sitting next to Nott. He supposed now he'd never know for sure.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

That afternoon, James and Zacharias made plans to meet up in the library again to get properly started on their project. James dawdled a bit after defence, but in the end headed to the library in the hopes that they might get some of this project out of the way so that they could get closer to not spending time together anymore.

When he arrived in the library, Zacharias was excitedly waving a lanyard around. This one had bits of yellow and red, but also bits of green woven into it.

"I made you a new friendship bracelet," Zacharias declared proudly. "See, this time I added the bits of green, to show that our friendship is also marked by your animosity with the Slytherins. Like how you came to sit with me to avoid Jason today."

James frowned at it. "But doesn't that make it look like I'm friends with both you and the Slytherins?" he asked.

Zacharias looked at it again and his face fell. "Oh drat," he muttered. "Now I have to go and fix it again. We'll just have to postpone the project until tomorrow."

Before James could protest, Zacharias got up and ran out of the library, leaving James alone and surrounded by books once again.

James sighed. At this rate, they were never going to finish this project. He would be better off just doing the thing on his own. As that thought crossed his mind, so did another. If he finished the project on his own, he wouldn't have to work with Zacharias anymore. Sure, it would mean more work for James, but wouldn't it be worth it in the end?

His mind made up, James stood and started grabbing books off the shelves that might be relevant. He and Zacharias had met up in the herbology section on purpose, so James didn't have to go far. Then he set himself up at the otherwise empty table, spread the books out around him, and started working on the project. In his enthusiasm to not have to work with Zacharias again, James worked through dinner, and just before he'd have been kicked out of the library for closing, he wrapped up the last of the project.

"There," he declared aloud to himself. "No more herbology, and no more Smith."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The next day, just after breakfast, Zacharias stopped James in the corridor to make plans to meet up later to get started on their herbology project.

"Oh, actually, there's no need," James informed him. "I started working on it last night, and somehow managed to finish the whole thing. You just need to put your name on the front, and we should be good to go."

"You – you did the project without me?" Zacharias asked, his face falling a little.

James nodded cautiously, unsure how the boy would react to the news that he now would get to spend less time with his supposed 'best friend'.

"That's so… so thoughtful," Zacharias said, his frown turning into a wide smile. "You thought you'd save me the trouble, because you knew how behind I was on my homework what with all those friendship bracelets I've been weaving."

"Oh," James said, surprised at this reaction. "Um… sure, yeah. That's what I was doing."

"Well this is just wonderful," Zacharias declared. "In fact, I think I'll add a strand of brown thread to the bracelet, to symbolize how herbology has brought us closer together. Brown for dirt, you understand."

"Right," James said, confused. This was not at all where he'd seen the conversation going.

"Well I'd better get started on that," Zacharias declared. "Don't worry, I'll find you once I'm finished. Oh, it's going to look so good on your wrist!"

And with that said, Zacharias bounced off down the corridor, leaving James a little dumbstruck, and Andrew laughing like an idiot.

"I can't believe that just happened," Andrew said, still laughing.

"I can't believe he's still working on that friendship bracelet," James said, shivering at the thought. "I'm never going to accept the thing."

"So what? You're just going to keep finding things that are wrong with it?" Andrew asked. "Wouldn't it be kinder just to say it's not your style?"

"I guess," James agreed. "But I feel bad. He worked hard on it."

"Now you're starting to sound like you care about him," Andrew declared. "Are you two secretly best friends, but you just pretend otherwise when I'm around?"

"Merlin no!" James exclaimed, horrified at the thought. "Alright fine, next time I see him, I'll tell him I'm never going to wear his friendship bracelet. It probably won't even offend him anyway. Somehow he always finds a way to make everything about what good friends we are."

Andrew laughed at this as the boys continued on their way to class. "I still find this whole thing highly hilarious."

James glared at his friend murderously. "You would," he muttered.


	7. March Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start _

Chapter 7: March 2017

February turned into March and James found co-existing with Nott more and more challenging. Ever since the start of second term, Nott had made continual subtle jabs at James which James had mostly ignored. But it was finally starting to get to James. He knew he needed to do something, he just didn't know what. The prank Uncle George had suggested had totally backfired and James had no ideas on another prank he could try to pull off. And besides that, he couldn't think of any way to put the Slytherin boy in his place.

And the jabs were getting more and more personal. At first, Nott had made fun of James for being in Gryffindor house, claiming that he was being unoriginal and just copying everyone else in his family. Nott had then moved on to poking fun at James' bravery, claiming that if he couldn't even stand up for himself, then he didn't even deserve to be in Gryffindor. He'd poked fun at James' family, usually either his father or the Weasley clan as a whole.

It was during a history of magic lesson that Nott finally crossed the line. James was sitting towards the back of the classroom, Andrew on his left and Lucy on his right, with Lucy's friends Tina and Ashley on her other side. From the front-left corner of the room, Nott made eye contact with James and then enchanted a piece of parchment to roll itself up into a ball and launch itself onto James' desk.

Not really wanting to, but doing it anyway because curiosity had gotten the better of him, James flattened out the parchment. It was a stick figure drawing of James with all of his friends. In a sequence, each of them dropped dead, James being the last to fall. Above their heads, Nott had written _your friends will pay for your father's mistakes along with you_.

Of course, James knew that Nott probably wasn't threatening to murder any of them. If he was, then James had other things to worry about besides his pride. But he was furious at the thought that Nott was now lumping his friends into this feud. It was bad enough blaming James for something his father had done. It was a wholly different thing to blame Andrew, Lucy, Tina, and Ashley for something James' father had done.

James waited until the lesson was over and as soon as they'd been dismissed, he cornered Nott in the corridor.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull here," James said. "But you leave my friends out of this. Whatever issues you have with me, you have with me and me alone."

"Oh, trying to be the big tough guy now, are you?" Nott said in a mocking tone. "Trying to prove you're as brave as people say your father was? Well I know the truth. You're just as spineless as he was, and he only seems brave because he killed one person."

"Uh, he killed _Voldemort_," Lucy piped up, coming up next to James. "That's a little more impressive than killing some regular Joe."

"Whatever, it wasn't a big deal anyway," Nott scoffed. "And then once he did that, he got it in his head that he was some big shot, when really he hadn't done anything. And then he thought he'd go around ruining more lives after that. Well I'm putting a stop to it."

"Look, just leave my friends alone," James insisted.

"What are you going to do?" Nott mocked him. "It's been months and you haven't done anything to me yet. I even landed you in detention, and still you've done nothing to me."

"Name the time and the place Nott," James said, determined not to let Nott walk away with a smile. "Wizard's duel."

Nott laughed, and then realized that James was being serious. "Are you sure you're ready for that, small fry?" he asked, looking at James with an expression that said he didn't think he stood a chance.

"If I win, you lay off me and my friends," James set his terms.

"And if I win?" Nott asked with a smirk.

James shrugged. "You keep on harassing me I guess," he said. What more could Nott want?

"If I win, your father lets my father out of Azkaban," Nott set his terms.

James balked. He couldn't agree to that. Not only would it mean setting a convicted Death Eater free, which James knew his father would never do, he was pretty sure his father didn't even have that kind of power. An official pardon after conviction could only come directly from the Minister for Magic.

"Deal," James declared. He would just have to win.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"I can't believe you just did that," Lucy groaned as the group made their way up to the Gryffindor common room. "You realize you can never follow through?"

"It's not like we made an unbreakable vow," James shrugged. "And I'll just have to win."

"How can you be sure you will win?" Andrew wondered. "You don't know what kind of spells he might know."

"I've watched him in defence," James said. "He doesn't pay attention. I've got this in the bag."

Though his friends remained unconvinced, James wouldn't change his mind. The chance to get Nott to shut up for good was too sweet. Not to mention the chance to finally get him back for everything he'd put James through all year. And the satisfaction of defeating Nott would be priceless.

The duel was set for that night. Since students were banned from dueling, they'd agreed that they should do it at a time and place that they would be unlikely to be caught. They were to meet on the outskirts of the forbidden forest, just out of sight of the castle, just past curfew. They would leave the front doors open a crack so that they could slip back in when it was all over undetected. And James had one thing Nott didn't have that promised he wouldn't be the one to get caught, if anyone was. James had the Marauder's Map.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

After dinner, James and his friends retreated to the common room to wait until the appointed hour. He didn't want to be too early, or Mr. Clarke would catch them on his pre-curfew rounds of the grounds and would send him back inside. And he didn't want anyone to think anything was amiss either, so he had to act natural.

The wait was excruciating. James felt like he would die of old age, but eventually it was time, and after ensuring that he had his wand, James headed for the portrait hole.

"I'm coming with you," Andrew declared, following after him.

"No, you should stay here," James shook his head. "If I do get caught, you shouldn't be caught with me."

"You'll need a second," Andrew pointed out.

"We're not having a real wizard's duel," James rolled his eyes. "Nobody's dying."

"But to be official and everything, I should be there," Andrew replied.

James could see that there would be no persuading his friend otherwise, so he consented to having Andrew come along. He drew the line when Lucy, Tina, and Ashley insisted on coming too.

"No," he shook his head. "Five will be way too conspicuous. Two people sneaking through the castle is bad enough, but even with my map, five will be hard to hide."

The girls realized that this was a good point, and it didn't take much more convincing to get them to stay behind. Honestly, James was more worried that they would be a distraction during the duel than that they would be hard to hide.

So James and Andrew ventured out into the corridor and began to head down to the Entrance Hall. As they reached the top of the Grand Staircase, they ran into Nick, the Gryffindor House ghost, who paused and looked at them suspiciously.

"It's almost curfew," he commented, his voice indicating that he thought they should return to their dorm.

"We know," Andrew said. "We just forgot something in the library. We'll grab it and be back in Gryffindor Tower before Mr. Clarke does his rounds."

"Make sure to come straight back," Nick said, continuing on his way. "Gryffindor are doing well this year. We wouldn't want to suddenly lose all our house points."

James considered responding by saying that they wouldn't lost any points for Gryffindor that night, but Nick had already floated through a nearby wall and disappeared.

"Come on, let's hurry," James said to Andrew instead, stepping out onto the stairs and hurrying down them.

It was a lot of stairs, but James was used to them by now. When they reached the Entrance Hall, the boys ducked behind a suit of armor and James pulled out the Marauder's Map to make sure Mr. Clarke had finished his outdoor rounds before they snuck away.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered.

The map came alive and the boys immediately began to peruse it. When they found Mr. Clarke in the dungeons, they knew they were good to go. James stepped out from behind the suit of armor first and Andrew followed him. They opened the door slowly, to avoid making any loud noise, and then slipped outside. James held the door open while Andrew grabbed a small rock from the ground and they carefully placed the rock between the two doors to keep them open just enough not to lock them out. Then they sprinted towards the forest in an effort to get out of sight as quickly as possible.

They hiked along the outskirts of the forest until they came to the appointed spot. Nott wasn't there yet, and James took the opportunity to get the lay of the land. He took stock of where the trees were, and where the ground dipped and crested. He didn't want there to be any surprises once the duel began, besides what Nott brought himself.

After waiting about twenty minutes, James and Andrew started to get bored. They found a nice grassy spot and sat down, leaning their backs against a couple of trees to wait, wondering what was keeping the Slytherin.

When an hour had passed, James started to shiver. It was March, and while technically it was getting warmer, nights were still icy cold, and James had not dressed for such a long wait.

"I hate to tell you this," Andrew spoke up finally. "But I don't think he's coming."

"Of course he's coming," James insisted. "How could he pass up an opportunity to have his father released from prison?"

"We both know that that was never going to happen," Andrew pointed out. "I think it's possible he knows that too."

"But then why would he agree to the duel?" James wondered, confused.

"He's still messing with you!" Andrew exclaimed. "You're out here, in the freezing cold, and he's warm in bed. He's probably hoping you get caught sneaking back in. He doesn't know about the map."

Though James didn't want to admit it, he knew Andrew was right.

"We can wait a little longer," James decided.

So they did. But after another half hour, Andrew had had enough.

"I'm tired James. Can't we just go back inside?"

"Not yet," James shook his head.

"He's not coming," Andrew repeated himself.

"You don't know that for sure," James protested.

"Check the map," Andrew said, the thought dawning on him that he could prove that their waiting in the forest was a waste of time.

James did so, opening it up and realizing that he'd never actually closed it from before. He unfolded it and Andrew immediately located Nott's name in the Slytherin dormitories.

"He's not coming," Andrew said. "He's tricked you. The longer we stay out here, the bigger his win."

"Alright," James sighed. "Let's go back inside."

The boys got up and moved through the forest until they were in sight of the front doors. Then, after James checked the map, they sprinted towards the doors and went to push them open.

To their dismay, the doors wouldn't budge. Somehow, the rock had become dislodged and the doors had closed properly, locking the boys outside for the night.

"Now what?" James demanded angrily. "We can't stay out here all night!"

"Hey, this was all your brilliant idea in the first place, so you can go ahead and come up with a plan," Andrew declared. "I can't believe I came out here with you."

"Hey, you wanted to come," James reminded Andrew. "I was perfectly happy coming out here on my own."

"Let's just figure out how to get inside, and then we can argue," Andrew said smartly.

"Right," James agreed. "Okay. We'll have to try to find an open window, somewhere on the first floor."

"Good plan," Andrew said. "We can crawl back in through it and then it'll be smooth sailing getting back to the seventh."

With a plan in place, the boys began to circle the castle, looking for an open window. Unfortunately, it was March, and most windows were closed because of the cold. They came across one that was open, but it was too high up to reach, so they kept circling the castle. When they found themselves back at the front doors again, they realized that they were going to have to try their luck with the one that was a little too high.

"I can do a levitation spell on you," Andrew suggested. "Then once you're inside, you can open the front doors and let me in."

James agreed that this was a good plan, and the boys made their way back to the window. When they arrived, Andrew got out his wand and James prepared himself.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_," Andrew incanted.

Suddenly, James felt himself lifting off the ground, his limbs moving of their own accord. He went from vertical to horizontal without much control, and when his head banged into the brick wall, he yelled at Andrew to be more careful.

He rose slowly, and he reached his arms out, stretching them towards the window ledge. When he finally grabbed hold, he shouted to Andrew to lift the spell so that he could hoist himself up. He tumbled into the room and swore loudly as he banged his knee on something solid in the dark. Then he stood up and turned around to lean out the window and let Andrew know he was in.

"James?"

James froze. He turned to find his herbology and potions Professors bleary-eyed and standing in the doorway of an adjoining room.

James realized he'd forgotten to check on the map what room he would be falling into.

"Professor Longbottom, Professor Abbott-Longbottom. Surprise running into you here," he said nervously.

"Really?" Professor Longbottom asked. "You're surprised to run into us in our own quarters in the middle of the night?"

"Your quarters," James muttered, cursing his luck. Of course he'd tumbled right into his professors' personal quarters.

"Can I assume Mr. MacDonald is on the other side of that window?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom inquired.

James hung his head. "Yes," he confirmed.

Professor Abbott-Longbottom went over to the window and cast a spell on Andrew, causing him to disappear and reappear in the room.

"Whoa!" Andrew cried in confusion. "What just happened?"

"What were you boys doing outside this late at night?" Professor Longbottom demanded.

"We – we were – " James hesitated. He couldn't very well tell them what they were really doing, or they would end up in more trouble than they were already in.

"We thought it would be fun to stay out all night," Andrew lied. "When we realized it was so cold, we changed our minds."

"That is incredibly foolish," Professor Longbottom frowned. "And it doesn't sound like you. I can't imagine you'd be out without a good reason. Harry always had – "

"I'm not my father, Professor Longbottom," James interjected, hating being compared to him. Though the story Andrew had told wasn't true, they had been out for a bad reason. James was sure his father would never have gotten caught out after curfew for something as against the rules as a wizard's duel. "He may have had good reasons for being out of bounds, but that doesn't mean I do."

"What are you doing?" Andrew frowned, confused as to why James would be trying to dig them into a deeper hole. But something had come over James. His dislike of being compared to his father all the time had taken over, and he didn't care how many points he lost. He would lose the points for being him, not keep them for being who Professor Longbottom wanted him to be.

"Well, I'm very disappointed in the both of you," Professor Longbottom said. "As punishment for your foolishness, I'm taking fifty points away from Gryffindor house from each of you. I hope this will teach you that rules are meant to be followed."

"Yes, Professor Longbottom," James nodded, hanging his head in appropriate shame.

"Do you need escorting back to your common room?" Professor Longbottom asked.

James shook his head. "We know the way," he assured the teacher.

"That's not what I meant," Professor Longbottom sighed. "But I'll trust you to go straight there and stay put. I'll be writing to your parents tonight as well."

"Do you really have to – "

Andrew didn't finish his sentence, because he could see from Professor Longbottom's stern look that this wasn't negotiable.

"We're sorry, Professor," Andrew said. "We'll never do anything like this again."

"I should think not," Professor Longbottom huffed. "Now go on, you two. We'll talk more tomorrow."

Neither James nor Andrew said a word until they were a full floor above their professors' quarters.

"Why would you do that?" Andrew demanded. "He might have let us off."

"I won't let my father's name be the reason I don't get in trouble," James insisted. "We were in the wrong."

"But now they're going to write home to my parents," Andrew groaned. "Do you realize what that means?"

"You're the one that wanted to come," James reminded Andrew. "If you didn't want to suffer the consequences, you should have stayed behind."

They argued for a few more floors, but by the time the boys arrived back at Gryffindor Tower, they weren't speaking to each other. The girls were waiting for them eagerly in the common room, wanting to know how it had gone, and who had won.

"I don't want to talk about it," James muttered, pushing past them and heading up to bed. He was too tired to explain his humiliation. Andrew could catch them up on how this whole thing had been his fault. James just wanted to go to sleep.


	8. April Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start_

Chapter 8: April 2017

"It's hopeless!" James groaned. It was April now and still he and Andrew had come up with no good plan for striking back at Nott. Thanks to Nott, James had gotten detention twice, lost tons of house points for being caught outside after curfew, and spent months being ridiculed and threatened, unable to do anything about it.

"What's hopeless?" Lucy asked as she happened to pass by where James and Andrew were sitting.

"Nothing," James muttered, shaking his head. Ever since he and Andrew had lost all those points, Lucy and her friends had been insistent that it be best for the boys to drop their vendetta. The end of the school year was nearing, and if they lost any more points, they'd be out of the running for the house cup.

"Well that's obviously a lie," Lucy said, plopping herself down in a free chair. "And I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."

James shook his head again, but Andrew acquiesced.

"It's this thing with Nott," Andrew informed her as James sent him an incredulous look, silently demanding why Andrew was talking to Lucy when they'd agreed not to. "We just can't think of anything to do that would make up for everything he's done to us."

"Not that we would do anything, even if we thought of something," James said hurriedly.

Lucy rolled her eyes, recognizing the obvious lie with ease. "Sure you wouldn't," she muttered. "I take it you've ruled out owling Uncle George again?"

James shrugged and sank back into his chair, not wanting to discuss the topic with his cousin. She wasn't going to help them, and there was no point in arguing with her. If Andrew wanted to start a debate, that was his prerogative.

"Your Uncle George seems to have ideas more leaning towards the prank variety," Andrew said tentatively. "And that's just not what we're really going for here."

"You tried that one prank back in January," Lucy pointed out.

Andrew nodded. "We did, and it completely backfired," he said. "Plus, in the end, it's not really the kind of revenge we're going for. It would have been embarrassing, sure, but would it really make up for the detentions and the harassing and the getting us into trouble?"

Lucy nodded, recognizing Andrew's point. "So then what do you want to do?" she wondered.

Andrew opened his mouth to respond, but James beat him to it. He leaned forward and jumped into the conversation. "He needs to pay for the things he's done this year," he said. "He's the one who should have lost those house points, and he's the one who should have had detention in November when he exploded our potion."

"So you want to land him in detention, somehow?" Lucy surmised.

James nodded. "Exactly," he said. "But we can't think of a way to do it without getting detention ourselves, which would completely defeat the purpose."

Lucy sat back and crossed her arms in front of her, deep in thought.

"I guess you're going to tell us it's not worth it?" James demanded, immediately on the defensive. "Tell us to drop it and lay low and move on?"

Lucy remained silent for a moment longer and then shook her head. "No," she said. "I wish you would, but I know you won't. So, I'll give you one piece of advice."

"And what's that?" James challenged, still convinced that Lucy wanted to shut his and Andrew's plans down.

"You're trying to come up with a way to land a person in detention while not getting caught yourself," Lucy summarized. "But you already know a way how."

"What do you mean?" Andrew asked, confused.

"Nott's already done it to you," Lucy pointed out. "He found a way to do it, and it worked."

"So you're saying turn it around and do to Nott what he did to us?" Andrew frowned. "Isn't that redundant?"

Lucy shrugged. "Maybe, but as long as it works, do you really care that you're recycling his idea?"

With that said, Lucy stood up and continued on her way, leaving the two boys to ponder her wisdom.

"What do you think?" Andrew asked, looking to James, who'd been silent since Lucy had made her suggestion.

James hesitated for a moment before answering, still processing his cousin's words.

"Well… we obviously can't turn the being out past curfew incident around on him, because he's smart enough that he'd see right through us if we tried setting another nighttime duel," he said slowly. "But, it wouldn't be too hard to slip something into his cauldron during potions like he did to us."

Andrew nodded. "We are brewing the wideye potion next week," he pointed out. "It's the perfect opportunity."

"But do you think it'll be too obvious, that we're just retaliating for what he did to us?" James asked.

"Nah," Andrew said, unconcerned. "If we did it right after, then maybe. But it's April. It's been months since the last potions incident. And as long as it's his potion that explodes, Professor Abbott-Longbottom will have to give him the detention. Her hands will be tied."

"Well alright then," James nodded, renewed enthusiasm coursing through him. "I guess now we just have to figure out how to explode a wideye potion."

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One really great thing about having such a big family was that James always had someone to go to with any problem. When he'd been looking for a good prank for Nott, Uncle George had been the obvious choice. Whenever he needed some good advice on dealing with his annoying siblings, he always went to Uncle Bill, who was also the eldest son in his family. At Hogwarts, when he missed his mother, Dominique and Victoire were his go to cousins for a bit of coddling. And whenever he had an academic question, his first choice was always his cousin Molly.

But he knew Molly's opinion on the misuse of knowledge and rule breaking. He knew she wouldn't help him if she knew why he needed the knowledge. So he had to phrase things very carefully.

He found her in the library. It was the obvious place to look for her, as she spent almost all her time there. And she was almost always alone, which was great, because the less people that overheard James' questions the better.

He approached her quietly and sat down, not wanting to disturb her from what she was reading, and waited for her to look up and set down her book on 13th century wizarding artists.

"Hello James," Molly greeted her cousin.

"Hello Molly," James returned.

"I assume you're here because you have a question for me," Molly commented.

James nodded. Molly was very astute. James almost never came to her with any kind of social call, because she had no interest in socialization, only academics. So it was all they ever really discussed.

"I wanted to ask you some questions about the wideye potion," James said. "We're meant to brew it soon and I want to be prepared."

"In what way?" Molly inquired. "I assume you're already familiar with the core ingredients and the basic method of brewing?"

James nodded. "Pretty basic. Three main ingredients: snake fangs, billywig stings, and wolfsbane. Brewing is rather straightforward, a standard mix and brew, with the addition of a final ingredient at the end."

Molly nodded. James knew how this worked. Molly needed to see that James knew what he was talking about before she would consider helping him. She didn't have time to be his professor, she would always say. She would answer his questions only if she felt that he already had a handle on the material.

"Very good," Molly said. "And I assume you're also familiar with the properties of all the ingredients you'll be handling?"

James nodded. "Of course," he said. "I'm just concerned about the possible risks involved with this particular potion."

Molly made a kind of 'aha' noise, as though she'd figured something out. "You're worried you'll have a repeat of the incident in November where you almost blew up the school," she said.

"I did _not_ almost blow up – " James stopped himself, forcing himself to remember why he was there. "Yes," he amended. "I just want to be sure that I don't make any more mistakes."

"Well the answer is obvious," Molly replied. "Don't take any ingredients out of the store cupboard that aren't specifically necessary for brewing this potion. You can't blow up your potion if you never give it the opportunity."

"Of course," James agreed, getting a little frustrated. "But just in case something were to end up on my workstation, or near it. Something that shouldn't be there. What should I be wary of?"

"I don't understand why there would be unnecessary ingredients on your workstation if you aren't using them for something," Molly frowned.

James forced himself not to let out a sigh of exasperation. "Well somehow hellebore ended up in my forgetfulness potion even though it wasn't necessary that day," he pointed out. "Maybe if I'd known to be wary of hellebore I'd have caught it before it got knocked inside."

Though he hated pretending as though the explosion had been his fault, it was the only way to get what he needed from Molly.

"You're right," Molly agreed finally. "And I do believe firmly that knowledge is power. The more you know, the less likely to make mistakes. The snake fangs and the billywig stings are harmless enough. It's the aconite you want to watch out for. On its own, it's poisonous and can cause death in the most extreme cases. The billywig stings counteract the toxins in the plant and make it safe for ingestion, but if you neutralize the billywig stings before adding the aconite then you'll end up with a deadly poison instead of a simple awakening potion."

"How would I neutralize the billywig sting?" James asked, hanging on every word Molly was saying. Molly frowned at James for a moment and he amended his question. "In a purely hypothetical, educational way, of course."

Molly narrowed her eyes for a moment, then continued. "Salamander blood might do it, although you'd need a lot of it to counteract the amount of billywig stings a wideye potion requires. Dragon's blood for certain, although you're not going to find any of that in general potion stores, so there's no need to worry about that one."

"Anything else?" James asked. So far neither option that Molly had presented was a useful one for what he needed to do.

"Sloth brain mucus," Molly declared. "That would be the one that I would be the most careful around. Not that I have any idea why you'd be working with sloth brain mucus during the brewing of a wideye potion. But if it were added before the potion is left to simmer, it would completely neutralize the effect of the billywig stings. Then you'd just have a bunch of snake fangs floating in potion water, and as soon as you add the wolfsbane it'd turn a dark green color, instead of the bright green of the wideye potion, and that's how you'd know it was poisonous."

"Great!" James exclaimed. He had his information, now he knew what he had to do. "Thanks Molly, that was really informative!"

"You're going to stay away from the sloth brain mucus, right?" Molly asked, suddenly sounding worried.

James assured her that he would. "Don't worry," he promised. "Nobody's going to end up poisoned."

What he didn't say out loud was that the lack of poisoning would be because Professor Abbott-Longbottom would surely recognize a poisonous potion where there should be an awakening potion and not allow it to be ingested. While nobody would be dying of aconite poisoning, somebody would be getting detention for carelessness. And for once, it wasn't going to be him.

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The day of the wideye potion brewing couldn't come fast enough, but somehow the day was finally upon them. James and Andrew had worked out a plan. Andrew would distract the class by making a big mess as he washed his mortar and pestle at the sink. Meanwhile, James would sneak into the cupboard, grab some sloth brain mucus, and slip it into Nott's cauldron with nobody the wiser.

When Nott added his aconite at the end, his and Parker's potion would turn dark green and Professor Abbott-Longbottom would freak out, reprimand the boys for using materials they shouldn't be using, and then hopefully dock points and give them both detention. And James and Andrew would be completely innocent bystanders.

As class began, James caught Lucy staring at he and Andrew with a disapproving look, and he got the distinct impression that she knew what they were planning. Which, of course she did, because she'd given them the idea in the first place. So, she shouldn't be acting so high and mighty, James thought.

Professor Abbott-Longbottom said her piece and then sat back to supervise as the first years began to brew their third potion of the year. James was antsy, as he waited for his moment to come, but he knew he couldn't rush it. And he and Andrew still needed to brew their own potion like the rest of the class.

James took charge of collecting the ingredients they would need, taking the opportunity to locate the sloth brain mucus in the cupboard as he did. To his dismay, when he did enter the potions cupboard, he found that there was no jar specifically labelled 'sloth brain mucus', but rather a jar dedicated to sloth brains.

When James returned to his and Andrew's workstation, he whispered under his breath. "I'm going to have to extract the mucus from the sloth brains before I can add it to Nott's potion."

"There's no mucus that's already been isolated?" Andrew asked in dismay.

James shook his head. "I'm going to need a bigger distraction," he said.

Andrew nodded, crushing the snake fangs in his mortar while James cut up the billywig stings. "I'll do what I can," he said. "How are you going to extract the mucus?"

"I guess I'll need to borrow a syringe," James replied. As first years, syringes weren't a part of their potions kits yet, so he would have to use one of their professor's spares that were kept in the supply closet.

"This is getting a lot more complicated," Andrew said nervously. "Are you sure we shouldn't just forget about it?"

"No way," James shook his head. He threw the billywig stings into their cauldron and began to stir. "Okay, I'm going to get the syringe, you add the snake fangs and heat our potion. When you see me go into the store cupboard, wait two minutes and then start the distraction. I'll do the extraction in there, and just carry the mucus out in the syringe."

"What will you do with the syringe after you've added the mucus to Nott's cauldron?" Andrew asked.

"I'll figure that out later," James insisted. "Are you ready?"

Andrew nodded, pouring the snake fangs into the cauldron and taking hold of the stirring rod. "Ready," he declared.

James moved as stealthily as possible, sidling into the supply closet without arousing any suspicion. Once inside, he frantically looked around for where they kept the syringes – he'd never had cause to use one before, and thus had never had to learn where they were kept. It took a few minutes, but eventually, he located one and shoved it in his pocket triumphantly. Then he slipped back out into the classroom, made sure that Andrew saw him, and sidestepped over to the store cupboard and slipped inside.

He was the only one in the cupboard, as he'd predicted. Everyone always collected all their ingredients first thing and then kept them at their workstations until they were needed, so there was no reason for anyone to interrupt him in here.

He grabbed the har of sloth brains and selected one from the top, picking it out of the jar gingerly, trying not to damage it before he extracted the mucus. The thing was slimy and gross, and James tried not to think about the fact that he was holding an actual brain in his hand.

As James pulled the syringe out of his pocket, he realized he'd overlooked one other detail. He had no idea where in the brain the mucus was held. He didn't know where to stick the syringe to get the portion of goo that he needed to mess up Nott's cauldron. He faltered for a moment, turning the brain over in his hands, trying to determine the best course of action when he heard a loud shout and then a commotion begin out in the main classroom.

It was Andrew's distraction. James didn't have much time left. At random, he stuck the syringe into the brain and started extracting fluid, hoping that what he was extracting was the mucus he needed and not some other kind of useless brain jelly. He could hear Professor Abbott-Longbottom taking charge of the situation on the other side of the door and knew he had to move now. He tossed the brain back in the jar and was about to place it back on the shelf when the door to the store cupboard opened and Tyler Burnside, one of James' Ravenclaw classmates, appeared in the doorway.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked looking from James to the sloth brains to the syringe and back.

"Nothing," James muttered, shoving the jar onto the shelf and trying to push past Tyler. He was determined to see this through, and he wasn't going to let Tyler stop him.

"Why were you holding the sloth brains?" Tyler insisted. "What's in that syringe?"

"None of your business," James insisted, pushing his way into the classroom and skirting his way around the side of the room. Most of the class was helping Andrew and Professor Abbott-Longbottom to clean up all of the water that Andrew had 'accidentally' spilled all over the place, which meant that this was James' chance. If only Tyler would leave him alone.

"Hang on," Tyler muttered to himself. James could see him adding things up in his head and he silently cursed Ravenclaws and their inconvenient thirst for knowledge. "Sloth brains… sloth brain mucus… billywig stings… you're trying to neutralize the potion!" he accused. "But why would you… the monkshood! You're trying to brew a poison!"

"No!" James insisted. "No, I'm not, you've got it all wrong!"

But it was useless. Tyler was already running to their potions professor to tattle, and now more and more students were turning towards James to see what the commotion was about. His chance was lost. If he added the mucus to Nott's potion now, everyone would see.

James frantically searched for somewhere to stash the syringe full of mucus before Professor Abbott-Longbottom caught him, but there was nothing nearby. He could shove it back in his pocket, but it would be easily discovered there. James was trapped.

"What did you say you saw James doing?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom's voice cried as Tyler made his accusation.

In a panic, James dropped the syringe and ran for it, his goal the door that led into the corridor. It wasn't logical. There was nowhere in the castle he could go that he wouldn't eventually be caught. But right now the flight half of his fight or flight instinct was taking over.

His path was blocked when Spencer Mallory and Cole Ryson of Slytherin moved to stand in front of the door. With nowhere to go, James froze, looking from the syringe on the floor to Professor Abbott-Longbottom, to Andrew, to Lucy, and then to Nott. His Professor was clearly extremely angry, Andrew looked apologetic, Lucy looked disappointed, and Nott just looked amused.

"In my office, Mr. Potter," Professor Abbott-Longbottom declared. "Now."

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"What were you thinking?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom demanded once she joined James in her office.

She'd left him to stew for a while as she'd gotten everything under control in the classroom and in that time James had come up with a brilliant defence: he wasn't going to say anything. So he remained silent.

"I took a look at the contents of that syringe," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said. "Sloth brain mucus, just as Mr. Burnside guessed."

James didn't say a word.

"I can't imagine what you could possibly have meant to accomplish here," the potions professor continued. "I know you're not the kind of boy to intentionally try to harm anyone."

Something about the way she said that rubbed James the wrong way and he broke his vow of silence. "Why not?" he challenged. "Maybe I was trying to poison someone with an aconite poison."

"I know that's not true," Professor Abbott-Longbottom insisted."

"Why?" James demanded. "Because my father would never have done it? I'm not my father, Professor."

"No, you're not," Professor Abbott-Longbottom agreed. "Because your father would never have been found with a syringe full of sloth brain mucus while brewing a wideye potion. When your father broke the rules, it was almost always with good reason. And he never endangered the lives of his fellow classmates if he could avoid it. You on the other hand, in your foolishness and ignorance and revenge-clouded brain, almost put an entire classroom-full of innocent lives at risk. Can you imagine what might have happened if you'd succeeded in turning Mr. Nott's potion into a poison and someone had ingested it without realizing what it was?

James shifted uncomfortably. "How do you know that's what I was doing?" he asked.

Professor Abbott-Longbottom ignored the question and continued. "I understand that you and Mr. Nott have had your differences this year. I understand that you blame Mr. Nott for the trouble that you've found yourself in multiple times. I understand your need for justice. It's a very Gryffindor quality. But this isn't the way."

James crossed his arms defiantly. He didn't want a lecture. He knew what was coming, and he just wanted to get it over with. This wasn't about him being a Gryffindor, and it wasn't about his father, and it wasn't about justice. It was about revenge. He wasn't trying to make things right, he was trying to get Nott to pay. And it wasn't the noble cause Professor Abbott-Longbottom was trying to make it out to be.

"Just punish me and get it over with," James insisted.

"James, please, let's just talk this through," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said. "I can get Professor Longbottom if you'd be more comfortable talking to your own Head of House. But I really think it'd be good for you to get some of these negative feelings off your chest."

"I don't want to talk," James insisted. "So either punish me, or send me on my way."

Professor Abbott-Longbottom sighed. "Detention, every Friday night for the next month," she declared. "And fifty points from Gryffindor."


	9. May Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start_

Chapter 9: May 2017

James wrinkled his nose as he reached down the drain of the potions sink and felt around for any last lingering gunk that may still be sticking to the walls of the pipe. It was his last Monday night detention with Professor Abbott-Longbottom and she'd chosen a particularly disgusting task for him this time.

"Alright, I'm finished," he declared, pulling his hand out, satisfied that he'd pulled out about as much as there was to be pulled.

"You're positive?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom asked, narrowing her eyes. She was used to students trying to get out of detention early by lying about the completion of their tasks. But James wasn't about to do that. He had no interest in getting in any more trouble. These four detentions had been enough to dissuade James from ever getting another.

"I'm positive," James assured her. "And I've done the sink in the after-hours potions lab as well."

"Alright," Professor Abbott-Longbottom agreed. She produced her wand and cast a quick _finite incantatem_ on James' arm, making it normal-sized and -shaped once again, and then dismissed him.

James practically ran as he exited the potions classroom and made his way upstairs. If he could avoid it, he'd never spend any more time in the dungeons ever. Unfortunately, potions was a required course until he'd completed his O.W.L.s, but as soon as he was a sixth year, James knew he would be dropping potions. He'd seen things he could never un-see now, held and felt things he could never un-feel.

He arrived back to Gryffindor Tower in time to catch his friends just before they headed off to bed.

"Hey everyone!" he greeted them as they packed up their notes and textbooks. "Where are you all going?"

"Upstairs," Ashley responded as the apparent spokesperson for the three girls. "It's late, and we have class in the morning."

"You're not all leaving now?" James asked in dismay. Because of his detention, James still hadn't gotten a chance to do any of his homework assignments, and there were two that were due the next day.

"Sorry," Ashley shrugged non-apologetically. "But we're not the ones who decided to be idiots and land ourselves in detention."

The other girls nodded along, though James detected some guilt in Lucy's eyes.

"What about you?" James demanded, turning on Andrew. "You're not leaving me too, are you?"

The implication was clear. While James had been a good friend and not ratted Andrew out as a conspirator in the aconite poisoning debacle, Andrew now owed James.

Andrew sighed, putting his things back on the table and sat back down. "I guess I still have a little more work that should get done."

"But Andrew, weren't you just saying how tired you were?" Ashley protested.

Andrew shrugged. "I'll feel better having this work out of the way," he insisted. "I won't stay up too late."

Since there was no point arguing with Andrew on this, the girls said their goodnights and headed up to bed. James took once of their freshly vacated seats and started unloading his bag, deciding to start with his transfiguration essay, since it required a lot more brain power than his charms assignment.

"So what did I miss?" James asked while Andrew produced a herbology assignment that wasn't due for another two days.

"Nothing interesting," Andrew replied. "We were just talking about how it's going to take a miracle for Gryffindor to win the house cup now."

"I am not the only person to blame!" James cried, immediately on the defensive. Ever since he'd lost all those points with Professor Abbott-Longbottom, he'd felt like his friends were all targeting him. Even Andrew, who'd been in on the plan with him, seemed upset with him for it.

"I know, I know!" Andrew insisted, holding his hands up in surrender. "And I never said you were. Those fifth years just lost us a ton of points too. It's not like anyone's pointing fingers."

James settled down a bit at that, though he was still a little on edge. He wasn't proud of how many points he'd lost Gryffindor that year, even though it was mostly Jason Nott's fault.

"Let's just do our assignments," James muttered, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

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The next day, James and Andrew were up surprisingly early. While the girls usually beat them to the common room, they found that they'd somehow managed to surpass them. They also quickly found that waiting was not one of their strong suits, and that they were too hungry to sit around in the common room. So James and Andrew decided to head straight to the Great Hall, leaving word with one of the common room portraits to let the girls know they'd gone on ahead.

When they entered the Great Hall, it was almost completely empty, which gave the boys a clear view of the large hourglasses that kept track of the house points. A modest pile of rubies sat glistening in the bottom of the Gryffindor hourglass, next to a heaping pile of emeralds in the Slytherin hourglass.

"It's just not fair," James found himself muttering as he and Andrew sat down and started to eat. "Nott should have lost at least as many points as we have. Slytherin's pile should be a lot smaller."

"It's because he's crafty," Andrew muttered back. "He knows how to stay under the radar, keep from being caught. And he's tricky. We won't be caught off guard next year."

"Yeah, but next year will be too late for this year's house cup," James complained. "Slytherin will have won it, and it'll sit in their common room all year."

"Well… there is one thing we could do," Andrew said slowly.

"What's that?" James asked as he buttered his toast.

"We could fix it," Andrew said.

"Fix what?" James frowned. He didn't understand what Andrew meant.

"The point allocation," Andrew clarified. "Nott should have been the one to lose points, but instead, we did. We should put that right."

"You mean tamper with the hourglasses?" James asked, horrified at the thought. "We can't do that!"

"Why not?" Andrew demanded. "We'd only be setting right what Nott messed up. And we wouldn't even touch Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. And technically, Ravenclaw's in the lead right now."

"By two points though," James pointed out.

"Whatever," Andrew waved his hand at this unimportant detail. "My point is, who would ever have to know? We could sneak out in the middle of the night…"

"We tried that once and got caught," James reminded Andrew.

"Yes, but we wouldn't be going outside the castle this time," Andrew said. "And we have that handy map of yours to help us."

"Okay…" James said. "I guess it could work…"

"I wouldn't be hard," Andrew added. "We'd just have to sneak into the Great Hall, move a few points around, and then sneak back upstairs. One of us could keep an eye on the map at all times to ensure that we aren't surprised."

"And then maybe people would stop being so mad at me for losing those fifty points," James said.

"And the both of us for the hundred before that," Andrew added.

"Good point," James agreed. "You know what? You're right. It's up to us to put this right. I'm in."

And so with a plan in place, all James and Andrew had to do was wait for the right night.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"It's almost midnight," James whispered to Andrew anxiously.

"I know, but what do you want me to do? Kick them out?" Andrew whispered back.

"We might have to do this some other night," James said, disheartened.

"We've been saying that every night," Andrew retorted. "Eventually, we're just going to have to wait them out."

"Hang on," James said then, as the seventh years began to stretch and rise from their seats. "I think they're heading up."

The two boys watched and waited as the last stragglers took their leave and headed upstairs to bed, finally leaving the common room completely empty save for James and Andrew.

"There," James said, still whispering. "Now's our chance."

James suddenly found himself extremely nervous as he produced the Marauder's Map. He said the passphrase to activate it and he and Andrew looked it over quickly to ensure that their route was clear – it was.

"Alright, I'll take the lead," Andrew declared. "You keep your eye on that map."

James nodded and followed Andrew to the portrait hole and out into the hallway. To both their relief, the fat lady wasn't in her frame at the moment, and couldn't yell at them for leaving past curfew. It would be a problem for another time if she wasn't there when they returned.

James followed close behind Andrew, keeping an eye on the patrolling footsteps of Mr. Clarke on the map. It looked like the night patrol man was presently on the fifth floor near the defence against the dark arts classroom, which was about as far away from the Grand Staircase as one could get, so James counted himself lucky.

They arrived at the Great Hall without incident and slipped in as quietly as possible. Then, once the doors behind them were closed, sprinted towards the hourglasses eagerly.

"Alright, how are we going to do this?" James asked. "Is there some way we can get inside to move the jewels around?"

"I was thinking we just use _wingardium leviosa_ to move the emerald back up into the top portion of the Slytherin hourglass, and the rubies down into the bottom portion of the Gryffindor one," Andrew declared. "We wouldn't want to break them by trying to physically get inside after all."

"Good call," James agreed, rolling up his sleeves and pulling his wand from his pocket. "I'll take Gryffindor, you take Slytherin?"

"Sounds good," Andrew nodded, producing his own wand as well.

On the count of three, both boys pointed their wands at the jewels in the hourglasses, said the incantation, and flicked their wands in the swish-and-flick motion. To their horror, instead of watching the jewels in question begin to levitate inside the hourglasses, an ear-splitting alarm sounded, causing both boys to drop their wands and cover their ears.

"What is that?" James yelled.

"I don't know!" Andrew shouted back. "It must be because we tried to tamper with the points!"

"I told you this was a bad idea!" James cried. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Run!" Andrew said, making a break for the door to the Entrance Hall.

James followed after, desperately trying to get away from the sound, but it followed them out in the Entrance Hall and even into the Grand Staircase.

"This is going to wake the entire castle!" James shrieked as he and Andrew bolted up the stairs, taking them two at a time as they fled the crime scene.

"As long as we don't get caught!" Andrew called back, leaping from one set of stairs to the next, even as the staircase began to move under his feet.

The boys ended up getting separated for a time, but eventually the staircases met back up again and somehow, they ended up on the seventh floor without having run into anyone.

"We're almost there!" James cried, pointing in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. "And it looks like… all the Professors and everyone are down in the Great Hall now," he added, pointing to the map. "We did it."

"Don't say that until we're safely back in bed," Andrew countered.

They came to the portrait of the fat lady, who in her curiosity to see if it was someone from Gryffindor that had set off the alarm, had mercifully returned to her portrait.

"I knew it'd be one of mine," she screeched as the boys came to a halt in front of her and shouted the password. "It's always one of mine."

She opened for them anyway, and the boys clambered into the common room. As soon as the portrait hole swung shut, the sound of the alarm was immediately inaudible, and James and Andrew understood why students hadn't been flooding the scene in confusion when it first went off.

"I think we might have made it," Andrew said, looking around at the empty common room in relief. "Did we really just manage to not get caught?"

"Apparently it's only when Nott's involved that we get in trouble for things," James muttered. "Come on, let's get to sleep. And also let's promise never to do that again."

"Agreed," Andrew nodded. "Besides, Gryffindor can still win the house cup if we rally. We've still got a month and a half to go."

"Exactly," James nodded. "We don't need to tamper with anything. We're the best house, and we'll prove it. Starting tomorrow."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Unfortunately, Andrew and James were in for a rude awakening when they came down to breakfast the next morning. While the previous day, Gryffindor had had a tidy little pile of rubies, today the Gryffindor hourglass was completely empty. Meanwhile, the other three hourglasses retained the same number of jewels they'd always had.

"What's going – " James pointed at the hourglasses, but was interrupted by Headmaster Slinkhard, who had just risen to give a speech.

"As many of you will notice," he began, "the Gryffindor house hourglass is a little emptier today than it was yesterday. This is because between midnight and one o'clock this morning, someone snuck into the Great Hall and attempted to tamper with the house points."

The room immediately became filled with indistinct sounds of chatter as the students began to talk amongst themselves. Loudest was the Gryffindor table, many of whom seemed angry for being the house that had lost the points.

"We do not know who is responsible for the attempted tampering," Headmaster Slinkhard declared. "Only that the individual or individuals were attempting to remove points from Slytherin house and add them to Gryffindor house."

The noise level increased as students began to throw around theories about who it could have been and why they would be so foolish as to attempt something like this. Meanwhile, James and Andrew stared at their plates, unable and unwilling to look at anyone or anything else.

"As such, the only appropriate punishment seems that Gryffindor house be docked points, as the most likely culprit is a member of Gryffindor house," Headmaster Slinkhard continued. "Thus, three hundred and eleven points have been taken from Gryffindor, bringing their total points down to zero."

At this declaration, the other Gryffindors descended into angry protests and banging on the table in frustration. It wasn't fair, they called out. It was person being stupid, and the Headmaster was making them all pay for it.

James and Andrew hung their heads even lower and James felt he wished he could sink into the stone floor and be a melted puddle of human goo. The only thing that made all this bearable was that nobody knew who had done it. If he and Andrew had been caught and their identities made known to the public, James wasn't sure what would have happened, only that it wouldn't have been good.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Everywhere James and Andrew went that day, people were talking about the loss of all of Gryffindor's house points. Members of the other three houses were mostly appreciative, as it made their chances of winning much greater. Members of Gryffindor house were furious and out for blood.

That evening found James and Andrew in a corner of the common room, keeping out of everyone's way as they quietly worked on their most recent history of magic essay. Their new plan was just to stay under the radar for a while, keep out of trouble, and wait for everything to just blow over.

But then, Lucy, Ashley, and Tina entered the Tower and came to sit with them, eager to discuss the most interesting topic of the day.

"Either of you have any theories?" Ashley asked immediately as all three girls sat down. "So far the best we've got is that it has to have been a seventh year who doesn't care anymore, since he'd be graduating soon anyway."

"He or she," Tina spoke up.

"Right," Ashley nodded. "My money's on Mason Wolf."

"What do you guys think?" Lucy asked, grabbing James' quill from his hand to stop him from writing so that he would pay attention to her.

James shrugged. "Yeah, Mason Wolf's a possibility," he agreed. "Or there's Paul Peterson. Or Jared Hill."

"Yeah, but Paul's on the Quidditch team," Ashley pointed out.

"What does that have to do with anything?" James frowned.

Ashley shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "I guess I just figure Mason's more of a delinquent than Paul. Paul's disciplined, you know?"

"I'm disciplined," James muttered lowly.

Suddenly, Lucy gasped loudly, and clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my God!" she cried.

"What?" Andrew demanded, shooting daggers at her with his eyes.

"It was you two!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Was not!" James cried defensively.

"You can't prove that!" Andrew added.

"But you did," Lucy insisted. "Neither of you will look up long enough to hold proper eye contact, you aren't really speculating about who it might be… it was you two!"

"But why?" Tina asked softly. Something about the way she said it made James feel like the biggest jerk on the planet.

"We didn't mean for it to turn out like this," James said resignedly. "We just wanted to put right what Nott messed up for us all year."

"By breaking the rules and tampering with the hourglasses?" Lucy surmised, unimpressed.

James nodded. "By tampering with the hourglasses," he agreed. "Look, it wasn't our most brilliant idea, alright?"

He didn't mention that it was really Andrew's idea. There was no need. He'd agreed to it, which made him just as culpable.

"I just can't believe you'd be so stupid and arrogant," Lucy said.

"I can," Ashley said, crossing her arms. "You realize you've both cost us the house cup."

"We weren't going to win anyway," Andrew muttered. "So don't get your panties in a twist."

Ashley harrumphed and set her face to a permanent frown, shutting her mouth defiantly.

"Look, just promise you won't tell?" James pleaded with the three girls. "We know we messed up, but it'd be really good if everybody didn't know."

Lucy hemmed and hawed. "It might be good for you to take some real responsibility," she pointed out.

"Trust me," James insisted. "We've learned our lesson. We won't do anything like this ever again."

Lucy considered the boys a moment longer, but it was Tina who had the deciding vote.

"Just let it go," she said, decidedly. "There's nothing to be gained from outing them besides more pain. Besides, what's done is done."

"Thank you Tina," James said emphatically.

Tina turned red and moved to hide behind her bag.

"You two had better be model citizens for the rest of the term," Lucy ordered, not quite as willing to just put things in the past like Tina was.

"Oh, we promise," Andrew said. "For the rest of term and the rest of time."


	10. June Year 1

_Year 1: A Rough Start_

Chapter 10: June 2017

James couldn't believe how quickly time flew once exams started. He'd thought he had so much time before the end of term, to figure things out, how he was going to explain all the trouble he'd gotten into that year to his parents. But suddenly, he found himself only days away from the train ride home with no idea how he was going to defend himself.

"It's not like they even know about the tampering we didn't do with the house points," Andrew pointed out. "This really isn't that big a deal."

But Andrew didn't understand. James' parents weren't just any old parents. They were _Harry and Ginny Potter_. They were two of the most well-known parents in the wizarding world, not to mention complete saints in the eyes of almost everyone James knew, and probably also everyone he didn't know. Harry and Ginny Potter could do no wrong, and while James had spent the year adamantly insisting, he not be compared to his perfect father all the time, he now feared the consequences of this choice.

Because now he had to face his father and find some way to explain that during his first year at Hogwarts, where Harry had uncovered the plot of an evil professor trying to steal the philosopher's stone to provide immortality to the darkest wizard of the age and then proceeded to thwart his plans, James had spent the year getting detentions, getting caught outside the castle in the middle of the night, fighting with classmates (one in particular) constantly, and being an otherwise completely troublesome first year who's probably more trouble than he's worth.

His parents were going to have a field day.

But the more James tried to make time drag on, the more it sped up.

"Oh come on," Lucy insisted the day before they were scheduled to leave for the summer. She and James were down by the lake, taking a walk together and James was lamenting the fact that he was probably going to spend the summer being punished for his misbehaviour all year. "Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny aren't completely unreasonable. Plus, you've already been punished for everything by the teachers. There's no need to punish you twice."

"I wouldn't put it past them," James muttered. Being the son of the Head Auror of the Ministry of Magic meant that James' father could be extremely strict at times. It also didn't help that Harry had grown up in wartimes, when breaking rules wasn't just insubordinate, but also sometimes extremely dangerous.

"Would you look at that!" Lucy said as they rounded the far side of the lake. She was pointing to the large white stone structure that stood on the edge of the lake where one of Hogwarts' greatest headmasters was interred.

"What?" James frowned, not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

"I've just never walked quite this close to it before," Lucy said, continuing to approach the tomb. "Do you think there's really a body in there?"

"Well sure," James nodded. "Why wouldn't there be?"

"It's _Albus Dumbledore_," Lucy insisted. "You really think they'd just leave his body for anyone to steal?"

"Why on earth would anyone want to steal a body?" James asked, convinced his cousin was losing it.

"Well I don't know," Lucy said grumpily. "I was just thinking… come on, let's look inside." She sprinted a few steps closer so that she was right at the entrance and began attempting to peek past the large stone at the front to the inside.

"That is not a good idea," James insisted, keeping a safe distance. "And I can't afford to get in any more trouble."

"It's not like there's a rule about not going inside old headmasters' tombs," Lucy pointed out. "Technically we wouldn't be breaking any rules."

"I think this rule might be implied," James said. "Sometimes things are just understood."

Lucy pouted. "So you're not going to help me move this stone?" she asked, looking a little put out.

"Definitely not," James shook his head. "Come on, we should get back up to the castle."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The next morning, James finished the last of his packing, making sure that he'd packed all his personal belongings. While technically he would be returning to the same dormitory in two months, he didn't want to risk leaving anything behind in case it got tossed away by the house elves during the castle's summer deep clean.

When he had finished, he wheeled his trunk down to the Entrance Hall and headed into the Great Hall in search of his friends. When he didn't immediately see any of them sitting at the Gryffindor table, he began to wonder if he'd beaten them all down, but then he noticed a flash from the door that led to the trophy room that looked like Lucy's hair and he went over to investigate.

"What are you all doing in here?" he asked when he found not only Lucy, but also Andrew, Tina, and Ashley, all poking around the various awards and artefacts.

"Have you ever spent any real time in here?" Lucy asked, looking up from a pair of awards for special services to the school. The awards were in the names of James' father and his Uncle Ron, for their help in uncovering the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets in their second year.

"No," James muttered, feeling out of place even just in the doorway. "No, not really."

"Your family is in here a ton," Ashley commented, looking up from a list of top students and their grades. "Lucy, your father, and your Aunt Hermione were both top of their classes for multiple years. And their scores are some of the highest out of anybody on this list."

"And look at these Quidditch displays," Tina added from across the room. "Both your parents played on the team James, a bunch of your uncles too… and your father made the team as a seeker when he was only in his first year!"

"And then there's this!" Andrew added from another corner of the room. He was looking at a display case holding the Triwizard cup. "Your father was the victor, and your aunt was one of the other three contestants!"

"Alright, alright, I get it," James said, gritting his teeth. "My family's amazing and they did all these great things. I know all about it."

"Just look at some of these artefacts," Lucy continued to ooh and ahh over the various displays. "The sword of Godric Gryffindor, the egg clue from the Triwizard tournament, the destroyed remains of the diary that opened the Chamber of Secrets…"

"And look at this!" Ashley added. "It's a list of all the members of Dumbledore's Army. Didn't your Dad found that club during the time of Umbridge the Unbearable?"

"He did," James nodded, wishing he was anywhere else. "Look, I'm going to get some food. You guys join me when you're done in here."

Turning and stalking back into the Great Hall, James took a seat at the Gryffindor table by himself and began to angrily munch on some toast. It wasn't that he disliked being from his family. In fact, most of the time he loved his parents and his aunts and uncles. But he didn't love them because of their accomplishments. He loved them because they loved him, took care of him, looked after him. All their accomplishments did was create this unwanted pressure on James that had been there his whole life.

Albus and Lily had it easy. For one thing, they were the second and third children. James was the first son of Harry Potter, the unofficial heir to the Potter legacy. For another thing, James was the one of the three that most took after his father Harry, and his grandfather and namesake James before him. James had inherited the messy black hair, the same set to his shoulders, the same shape to his nose and jaw. While Albus had inherited the green eyes that Harry got from his mother, it was all he'd inherited. And Lily was the spitting image of their mother, Ginny. Which made James the obvious visual heir to the throne as well.

And sometimes, it was more than James could bear.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

When the Hogwarts Express finally pulled into King's Cross station that evening, James felt a lump form in his throat that he couldn't dislodge no matter how many times he tried to swallow it. He looked out the window to see his entire family standing and waiting for him, smiles on their faces, looking expectantly at the train, as if hoping to recognize his face in one of the windows.

At least they wouldn't reprimand him right on the train platform, James told himself. His parents would at least wait until Albus and Lily weren't in the vicinity, if only to prevent them from getting any ideas for when they started at Hogwarts, which for Albus would be all too soon.

James said his goodbyes to his friends on the train, wishing Andrew, Tina, and Ashley a good summer, and bidding Lucy a temporary farewell until the big start of summer family dinner at the Burrow in a few days. Then, wheeling his trunk behind him, he approached his family and plastered a smile onto his face.

"Hey everyone!" he greeted them with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.

"James!" Ginny cried as soon as she caught sight of her son. She rushed forward and grabbed James in a hug, which Lily quickly joined, latching onto James from behind and refusing to let go.

James dragged Lily along with him as he went to hug his father and brother and Ginny ended up having to pull her off her eldest brother to allow him to be able to move properly.

"And you're back for the whole summer now, right?" Lily insisted, clearly not having enjoyed being left alone with only Albus for company all year.

"That's right," James agreed, ruffling his younger sister's hair. "Don't worry, I won't leave you alone with this snake again."

"I am _not_ going to be in Slytherin," Albus insisted adamantly, catching the subtle implication and reacting to it immediately.

James knew it was a sore spot with his brother and liked to rile him up.

"Leave Albus alone James," Ginny reprimanded.

James immediately sobered. He was in enough trouble as it was. Best not to make it worse by messing with Albus quite yet.

"Sorry Mum," James muttered quietly.

"Shall we get going?" Harry asked, leading the way back into the muggle part of the train station and then out to their car.

It wasn't a long drive from King's Cross to Grimmauld Place, and before James knew it, he was back in his old familiar house and Kreacher was taking his trunk from him, to bring it upstairs and start the unpacking and most importantly, the laundry.

"James, come and see what I got!" Lily exclaimed, grabbing onto James' hand and trying to pull him in the direction of her room. "It was a present from Grandmother and Grandfather for my birthday and it's _so_ cool."

"In a minute, Lily," Ginny called out, stopping the young girl in her tracks. "Your father and I need to speak with James privately in the drawing room first."

Suddenly the lump was back, and James felt his heart sink. This was it. The moment of truth was finally here. James desperately tried to think of a reason to postpone this conversation, but knew it was no use. It had to happen eventually, and it would only be worse the longer he put it off.

James followed his parents into the drawing room and bit his lip as he heard his father close the door behind him.

"Have a seat James," Harry suggested, gesturing to one of the chairs.

James sat, as did his parents, and James shifted uncomfortably.

"I've received a number of letters from Nev – from Professor Longbottom this year," Harry began. "A disturbing number of letters."

James hung his head. "I know I've gotten into a bit of trouble this year – "

"A bit of trouble?" Ginny cried. "You were caught sneaking into Neville and Hannah's window in the wee hours of the morning, way past curfew – what on earth did you think you were doing?"

"In my defense," James said. "I had no idea it was Professor Longbottom's quarters that we were sneaking into. I just thought it would be some corridor or empty classroom or something."

"That's not really a great defence, son," Harry pointed out. "And it doesn't explain why you were outside the castle at such an ungodly hour."

"It's all Nott's fault really," James muttered.

"Nott?" Harry asked. "You mean Jason Nott? Son of Theodore Nott?"

"That's the one," James nodded. "He tricked me and Andrew into meeting him in the forest that night. Only he never showed."

"You shouldn't have showed either!" Ginny cried. "Merlin, you were in the forest on top of everything else? Do you know how dangerous it is in there?"

"Not as dangerous as when you went to Hogwarts," James insisted. "It's not like Voldemort's hiding out in there, and all the acromantula are gone, and Hagrid's brother Grawp went back to the mountains a while back. The centaurs may be difficult, but it's not like they'd harm a student."

"There are other things in those trees," Ginny insisted.

"Like what?" James challenged.

"I don't know," Ginny said, frustrated. "Just… things."

"What your mother is trying to say is that sneaking out of the castle to go into the forest in the middle of the night was extremely reckless and foolish of you," Harry said. "But I also understand that you were punished for that particular indiscretion?"

James nodded. "We lost a ton of house points," he said. "The whole of Gryffindor house was really mad at us for a while."

"You should have gotten detention for a year – "

"Now, now, dear," Harry interrupted his wife. "You know as well as I do the power that house shame can do to a person, especially in their first few years at Hogwarts. I'm sure the loss of house points was a lesson James won't forget soon."

"Definitely not," James agreed, thinking of the incident with the hourglasses. "I've learned my lesson. No more screw ups from me."

"Well I still think we need to punish you too," Ginny insisted. "There have to be consequences."

"What are you going to do?" James asked.

"I think a month's grounding should do it," Ginny declared.

"That seems a little steep," Harry muttered looking away from James. "It is summer after all. How about two weeks?"

"He won't learn his lesson if we go too easy on him," Ginny insisted. "A month is only fair."

"Three weeks?' Harry suggested.

Ginny considered for a moment and then gave in. "Alright. Three weeks. And not a day sooner, you got that?"

"Yes ma'am," James nodded, relieved to have gotten off so easy. He'd expected to be grounded the entire summer, with extra chores piled on to boot.

As James headed for the door, Harry stopped him, asking him to stay.

"I'd just like to have a word with James in private," he said to Ginny. "You know, man to man."

Ginny narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but acquiesced. She got up and left, shutting the door again behind her, and James resumed his seat.

"Listen James," Harry began. "I know you're mother seems mad, but really she's just worried for you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," James rolled his eyes. "She's worried I won't turn out like you did, all perfect and saviour-like and everything."

"No," Harry shook his head. "She's worried you _will_ turn out like me."

"What?" James asked, frowning. That didn't make any sense. "Why?"

"The world may remember me as the saviour of the wizarding world, but I was a very different person back when I was in school. I had a tendency to break the rules, much the same way you do, and I got in trouble quite a bit in my day," Harry said.

"But you had good reasons for breaking the rules," James insisted. "Like when you used the patronus charm in front of your cousin when you were only fifteen – you only did that because there was an actual dementor. And when you formed Dumbledore's Army, even though it was against the decrees that Professor Umbridge had enacted. Or when you snuck away from school and then broke into the Ministry so that you could fight Voldemort and the death eaters and stop them from retrieving that prophecy." James listed some of the multitude of his father's accomplishments that he'd been forced to hear about all his life. While Harry may have broken rules, he'd always done it for the greater good. Not for some petty revenge.

"Those are only the stories you know," Harry said. "Did you know that in fifth year I was also banned from Quidditch for punching out one of the members of the other team?"

"Wait, you did what?" James cried in surprise. He never would have taken his father for the violent type.

Harry nodded. "And in fourth year, I got in trouble for having an unauthorized duel in the middle of the corridor with that same student."

"You didn't!" James exclaimed, unable to believe his ears.

"I certainly did," Harry confirmed. "I also snuck out of the school more than a few times, and once your uncle Ron and I even stole your grandfather's flying car."

"I don't believe you," James declared. "You're making it all up. And Grandfather doesn't have a flying car."

"He used to," Harry insisted. "If you ever find yourself really deep in the forest, you may come across it. It went wild a long time ago and now it roams the darkest and most dangerous parts of that forest. Not that I'm recommending you go looking for it, of course."

"Of course," James nodded.

"Look," Harry said. "All I'm saying is I wasn't so perfect either. So don't feel so bad about messing up. We all do it. I've made a ton of mistakes I regret, only I didn't have parents looking out for me, to punish me when I did mess up. So just be glad that we're worried about you. And maybe try to break some smaller rules next year, so your mother doesn't explode."

James smiled. "Alright. Thanks Dad."

James found that he felt a lot better, knowing that his father hadn't been as perfect as everyone always said he was. Harry had made mistakes too, gotten in trouble, let his emotions get the better of him. He'd had disagreements with classmates too, gotten into fights, and made some reckless decisions just like James.

What James needed to do was stop worrying about the pressures of his father and his family, and instead just focus on being James. And he had the whole summer to work out what that meant. But come September, James was determined to have a whole new mindset. It was time to step out of the shadows and into the light.


	11. September Year 2

_Year 2: Suspicious Activities_

Chapter 11: September 2017

It was September the first, and everyone's attention was on Albus. All morning, it had been _Albus this_ and _Albus that_, _watch out for Albus_ and _make sure Albus is fitting in_. James was sick of it. So as soon as he could, he slipped away from his family in search of one of – any of – his friends.

He was approaching the front end of the platform when he noticed the familiar face of his godbrother, Teddy. Which was strange, because Teddy had long since graduated from Hogwarts and worked at the Ministry now. In fact, James was pretty sure Teddy was supposed to be at work right now.

Curious as to why Teddy would be here and not working, he started to approach. But then he saw Teddy reach out and grab someone, who turned out to be James' older cousin Victoire. James cocked his head to the side and as stealthily as possible, creeped closer. Unfortunately, it was very loud on the platform, and he couldn't make out what they were saying, though it seemed that they were arguing.

From James' vantage point, he could only see the back of Victoire's head, but from the way that she kept trying to pull her hand from Teddy's grip, and the way her body was turned slightly away from him, James got the impression that she didn't want to be talking to him. Which was strange, because Teddy and Victoire had always gotten along really well, as far as James knew.

Victoire finally extricated herself and started walking away, and James was trying to decide whether to follow her onto the train for further spying, or to go ask Teddy what was going on, when suddenly Teddy grabbed her again, pulled her towards him and just started kissing her.

Gross, James thought to himself. They were like cousins, and they were snogging in the middle of the platform. And it looked like Victoire was snogging him back. James' eyes widened as it just kept going and he wondered how many times they'd done this before. It certainly didn't look like their first time.

In the end, Victoire pulled away and shoved Teddy away from her, hard. There was a moment where Teddy tried to reach out, but she took a step back, clearly upset with him about something. James wondered if she was upset about the kiss, or whether the kiss was supposed to be making up for something else that she was angry about. He thought about all the times at the Burrow that Teddy and Victoire had gone off alone, and it was like a torch was lit inside James' mind. Suddenly it all made sense.

Victoire walked away, and James made a split-second decision not to follow her, but instead to ask Teddy what was going on. While Victoire was technically the blood-relative, Teddy was more like an older brother to James. He would give him a straight answer.

"Teddy!" James called out, pushing his way through the bit of crowd still separating them. "Hey Teddy!"

"James?" Teddy frowned, suddenly looking uncomfortable and embarrassed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm supposed to be here," James pointed out. "I'm a student. What are you doing here? And what are you doing with Victoire?"

"I just came to see her off," Teddy shrugged. "No big deal. We're friends."

"It looked like you're a lot more than friends from where I was standing just now," James said suggestively, waggling his eyebrows.

While he'd thought this would make Teddy laugh, it only seems d to anger his godbrother.

"Just go away James," Teddy said shortly. "Go find your friends or you parents or whoever you're supposed to be with right now and leave me alone. And forget about what you saw."

"Fat chance," James muttered with a shrug. He wasn't going to take Teddy's anger personally. It was clear Teddy was upset about the fight he and Victoire seemed to be in, and he was only taking it out on James because Victoire had walked away.

Teddy stalked away, leaving James alone once again, and James excitedly turned around, to relocate his family. This news was too good not to share with everyone. And maybe when he did, his parents would pay attention to him for a minute and forget about precious little Albus.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

Harry and Ginny did not seem as surprised by James' news as he would have hoped. Lucy on the other hand, was beyond shocked, and spent the entire train ride questioning James on what he'd seen, analyzing it from every angle. By the time they'd arrived at Hogwarts, Lucy had determined that Teddy and Victoire must be broken up, and Teddy was trying to get her back. James thought that was pretty unlikely, given that she'd been kissing him back for some time before shoving him away, but Lucy was adamant that she was right. Either way, James didn't really care. Now that he was back at Hogwarts, he had other things to worry about. Namely, Quidditch.

James couldn't try out for the Quidditch team last year. The rule was that you had to have completed the flying course and received a flying license before being able to play. The rule had been instituted after the second wizarding war when every first year in Gryffindor started showing up to Quidditch tryouts, thinking they were going to be the next Harry Potter. The number of accidents quadrupled, and Madam Eldridge had made her ruling.

But James was a second year now, which meant he could try out for any position he wanted. And after putting a lot of thought into it, he'd decided that instead of trying out for the position of seeker, like his father, he was going to walk his own path and try out as a chaser.

Quidditch tryouts weren't until the second week of September, so James spent the entire first week getting in as much practice as he could. He tried to convince Andrew to try out with him, but Andrew wanted to play keeper, and that year's Quidditch captain held the position of keeper, which meant it was unavailable. Andrew still made an excellent opponent for practicing purposes though, and there was always next year. Adrian Carter was a seventh year, and as such would be graduating that June.

The Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts took place on a Saturday afternoon. Ravenclaw had had their tryouts that morning, and Hufflepuff and Slytherin would have theirs the next day. James spent most of the morning pacing the common room nervously, while his friends tried to convince him to be productive and work on his homework assignments. But James couldn't sit still. And the homework wasn't important anyway, mostly it was just review of last year's material.

Finally, it was lunchtime, and everyone headed down to the Great Hall for a bite before James' tryout. His friends were all going to come down to the pitch to support him, which made James both reassured, but also extra nervous. If he messed up badly, everyone would see, and they could make fun of him for the rest of time. Not that he thought that his friends would do that. Ashley maybe. And Lucy, but not while the embarrassment was still fresh.

James wolfed down enough food for two as he tried to calm his nerves. He wanted to be nice and full for his tryout. He wasn't going to faint or fall off his broom from hunger because he'd been too nervous to eat. As he took a fourth sandwich from the platter in the middle of the table, Zacharias Smith, from Hufflepuff, came up.

"Hello James. Friends of James. Fancy meeting you all here," he said.

"It's the Great Hall," James said, annoyed by the boy's presence already. While James had hoped the summer away would make Smith more bearable, it seemed to have had the opposite effect. "We all come here to eat."

"Too true, too true," Smith nodded, as if this were a very wise statement. "Well, I was just thinking James, that we haven't had much of a chance to spend any time together yet this year. And as we're such good friends, I thought you might be interested in a game of gobstones up in the second year lounge this afternoon."

"Sorry," James said, immensely glad for an excuse to say no. "I'm actually trying out for Quidditch this afternoon, so I can't."

"Ah Quidditch," Smith smiled. "The noblest of wizarding sports. I myself was thinking of trying out for the Hufflepuff team, but thought better of it because it would detract from the time I might spend with you, my best friend. But if you plan on trying out, then perhaps I should as well."

"Oh, that's really not nec – "

"It's decided," Smith clapped his hands together. "I'll go put my name down now. Hufflepuff tryouts aren't until tomorrow, that should be sufficient time to prepare."

He was gone before James could get in another word, leaving James completely dazed, and his friends all staring at him in confusion.

"I will never understand that boy," James sighed, a small headache starting up towards the front of his head. He took a big gulp of pumpkin juice in an attempt to clear it. He needed to focus. "Whatever. No time to be thinking about that. I've got some tryouts to win."

JjJjJjJjJjJ

James got to the Quidditch pitch early enough that he had time to do a few laps of the pitch before the tryouts began to warm up. His friends all clamored up into the stands and took seats near the tryout bench to watch. When more people started showing up, James touched down and went to join them, finding himself surrounded with a bunch of fifth, sixth, and seventh years. Suddenly, James wasn't feeling so confident.

What made James think that he'd be able to fly better than all these other students, who'd been practicing for years longer than he had? What made him think a twelve-year-old kid could outfly an eighteen-year-old who'd probably been waiting for this tryout for years? But James' name was already on the list, and he was here, so it was too late to back out now. He could only hope for a graceful loss, and then maybe he'd try out again in a few years, when his chances were better.

Adrian Carter, keeper and Quidditch captain, began the tryout with a speech about how he was only looking for serious candidates, and anyone who wasn't willing to put in the time should leave now. James glanced up at his friends, wondering if he should just take off now, but he found he had too much pride for that. He couldn't just give up. Walking away now would be a bigger failure than not making the team. At least if he tried out, he could say that he tried.

To James' dismay, chaser tryouts were the first up that afternoon. As keeper, Adrian would defend the hoops, and he would pit the chasers in a series of two on two matches, half-pitch rules, with each mini-game going to a maximum of three goals. Adrian assured them all that they would not be judged on whether their team actually won the game, but on how they performed individually, but James was still nervous about getting paired with a decent partner.

There were eight candidates trying out for the chaser position, which worked out perfectly. Adrian immediately paired up Caitlin Bell and Sarah Radford with each other, which James thought was completely unfair, given that they had both been on the team last year and had an unfair advantage working together. James got paired with a third year named Randall Thorpe.

In the first match, Adrian pitted Caitlin and Sarah against two sixth year boys. Caitlin and Sarah won the match easily, making the two boys look completely pathetic. Adrian cut them both on the spot, telling them that it would take a lot of practice to be at the level he was looking for.

James and Randall were up next, against a sixth year girl named Jennifer Cadwallader, and a third year girl named Joan Whitehorn. They kicked off from the ground and took their positions, and Adrian tossed the quaffle into the air to signify the beginning of the match.

James immediately dove for the quaffle. If he was going to prove himself, he couldn't hang back and wait for Randall to make him look good. He had to do that for himself. And while he didn't have much going for him, he did seem to have speed, because he got to the quaffle before anyone else did, catching it and taking off with it.

Jennifer and Joan were on his tail immediately. Randall was hanging back uselessly, and James groaned to himself. This tryout was going to be extremely difficult if Randall didn't give him something to work with. James swerved back and forth, having to double back a couple of times when Jennifer and Joan cut him off, and eventually, they caused him to drop the quaffle, and they took position, scoring their first goal.

James swore under his breath, and made a face at Randall, as if to say _what do you think you're doing_?

Adrian tossed the quaffle back into circulation, and James caught it again. This time, he purposefully flew close to Randall and called out to him. "Get open, where you'll have a clear shot, and I'll toss you the quaffle."

Randall nodded and immediately flew into motion. While he waited for Randall to get in position, he flew in a zig-zag pattern in an attempt to confuse their opponents. Once Randall had a clear shot, James tossed him the ball, and Randall went for the goal. Unfortunately, the goal was saved by Adrian, and moments later, the girls had their second goal.

"Okay, this time, you keep the quaffle and I'll get into position," James called out to Randall as they went into what could possibly be their final round. "Get me the quaffle and I'll make the shot."

Since Jennifer had possession of the quaffle, James first had to get it away from her. He was able to steal it in midair as she tossed it to Joan, and then James passed it off to Randall as he flew closer to the goalposts in an attempt to find a clear shot.

Joan and Jennifer were focusing on Randall, and James tried to make eye contact with his teammate, to indicate that he was ready to receive, but Randall was distracted. He ended up dropping the quaffle, and the girls caught it. Groaning, James shot forward to try and steal it back, but he was too late and within a few more seconds, the girls had scored and the match was over.

"Hey, I'm sorry man," Randall said as the four of them and Adrian all touched back down on the ground. "I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought I was."

"You think?" James asked, annoyed. The only silver lining was that when James was cut, he could blame it on Randall and not himself. James wished he'd gotten paired with someone more competent, like Jennifer or Joan.

"Alright, I've made my decision," Randall declared, as the six of them clustered around him. "Caitlin, Sarah, welcome back to the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

Though is wasn't much of a surprise, both girls seemed extremely relieved. The others clapped for them politely, though they all knew it meant there was only one slot left.

"As for the final spot," Adrian said. "I would like to offer my sincerest congratulations to James Potter. You're on the team, son."

For a moment, James was sure he'd heard wrong. It should be Jennifer, really. She'd been the best one of the four of them up there, and she was a sixth year. How could he, a second year, have out flown her? Not to mention, James didn't make a single shot.

"Are you sure?" James asked, with a frown.

Adrian laughed. "I certainly am," he said. "You displayed exactly the qualities I was looking for. While you didn't make any goals, your flying was impeccable, and your ability to steal the quaffle was impressive. And even though you were paired with a less than ideal teammate, you tried to work together with him. I can teach someone how to make a goal. I can't teach someone how to be a team player."

James beamed. He felt some of the others patting him on the back in congratulations, and he moved to join Caitlin and Sarah in their little huddle. Randall looked a little put out, but James ignored this. Somehow, being paired with Randall had turned out to work in his favor. Who knew? He'd have to thank the guy some day. Just maybe not today.

Randall, Jennifer, and Joan were excused, and next the beaters had their tryouts. James sat with his teammates and made little bits of small talk with them as they waited to see who else would be joining the team. Not that it was much of a surprise. Miles Bailey and Tom Kelley had been the beaters on the team last year, and they were the obvious choice for this year's team as well. Nobody else even measured up.

Finally, there was the position of seeker to fill. But again, it was no surprise when the spot went to Brooke Hill, who'd held the position for the last two years, and was now going for a third. Which meant that by the end of the day, the only new member of the team was James. And he was feeling pretty good about that.

"Alright team," Adrian said once the tryouts were over and everyone else had been dismissed. "So I haven't finalized our training schedule with Madame Volant quite yet, but I expect I'll have at least the next two weeks' worth of it posted by this time tomorrow on the bulletin board in the common room. I know it's going to be different, not having Kurt leading us or flying with us, but we've got James now, and I hope you'll all find me a suitable leader."

There was a chorus of cheers at that, which James joined in with. Now that he was on the team, he needed to integrate himself. He was the one at a disadvantage right now. Everyone else knew each other well from last year, and he was brand new. He hoped he would start clicking with everyone early on.

Adrian said a few more words, mostly inspirational leader stuff about how they were going to crush the other teams, and win the Quidditch cup and bring glory to Gryffindor again just like the previous year. They were the reigning champions after all. Then they were dismissed for the day, and James rejoined his friends on the grounds just outside the pitch.

"Hey, congratulations man!" Andrew said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, really good flying out there," Lucy smiled, reaching in for the hug.

Ashley made a sarcastic comment about how he could have at least made a goal, and Tina was quiet, but smiled at James warmly.

As the five of them started to head back up to the castle, James suddenly found his path blocked by someone he'd as of yet avoided since being back at school.

"Nott," James greeted the Slytherin boy coldly. "Can I help you?"

"I see you've made the Gryffindor team," Nott sneered. "You'll understand if I don't congratulate you."

"That's your prerogative," James shrugged. "I don't really care what you do. If you'll excuse me – "

He tried to push past the Slytherin, but Nott body blocked him.

"You should know, I plan to try out for the Slytherin team myself," Nott said. "As a beater. And when I make the team, and we eventually play each other, I'm going to send bludger after bludger at you until you're knocked completely unconscious and fall to the ground and die."

"Is that a threat?" James demanded, taking a step closer in anger. He'd been determined to keep his distance from Nott this year, not get sucked into his crap. But it was hard to do that when Nott was threatening to kill him right to his face.

"Come on James," Lucy insisted, pulling him away. "It's all talk. Don't listen to him. Just walk away."

James nodded and allowed Lucy to lead him away, not trusting himself to do it alone.

"You'd better watch your back Potter," Nott called after him.


	12. October Year 2

_Year 2: Suspicious Activities_

Chapter 12: October 2017

As September turned into October, James found himself getting used to his new routine. He had Quidditch practices five times a week – on Monday and Tuesday mornings, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, and then a nice long practice on Saturday morning. With all the practices and homework, James barely had time for a social life, but he still managed to spend some time with his friends.

"Hey Lucy, Tina," James said one Sunday morning, joining the two girls for breakfast. Andrew was sleeping in, and Ashley appeared be doing the same.

"Good morning James," Lucy returned. "Had a good sleep?"

"Alright," James nodded. "You?"

Lucy shrugged and James turned to Tina.

It took Tina a minute to clue in that they were waiting on a response from her, and then she quickly swallowed her eggs in a frantic attempt to empty her mouth to speak.

"Sleep," she said hurriedly. "Yeah, it was had."

James exchanged an amused look with Lucy and Tina turned beat red.

"I mean – yeah, it was good," Tina tried to cover up her fumble. "I mean, I slept good. Well. I slept well."

"It's okay," James said, to get the poor girl to stop trying to recover. It wasn't even that interesting a topic anyway. "I get it."

If it was possible, Tina turned even more red, and tried to hide behind her hair.

Tina was a really smart girl, but some days, James wondered how she was able to function. Recently she always seemed unable to form a coherent sentence, and half the time what came out her mouth weren't even actual words.

As the three second years continued to eat their breakfast, the morning post began to arrive. It was a Sunday, which in the muggle world meant no post. But this was the wizarding world, and in the wizarding world, the post was delivered every day.

As the owls flew around the room, James, Lucy, and Tina waited to see if any of them would receive any mail. After a few minutes, a letter addressed to Tina was dropped right in front of her plate, and a copy of the Sunday edition of the _Daily Prophet_ fell practically into Lucy's lap.

"Ah, excellent," Lucy said, unrolling the paper to see what the day's headlines were.

Lucy always spent her morning pouring over the newspaper, not just to see what was in the news, but to read the articles and get ideas about how to write. She was determined to succeed on the _Hogwarts Herald_ and was doing everything in her power to get another byline this year. James was impressed. It was the same level of commitment he needed to give to his Quidditch practices.

A gasp jolted James from his thoughts, and he and Tina immediately snapped to attention, trying to see what had surprised Lucy.

"Good or bad?" James asked. Since he was sitting across the table from the two girls, he was in the worst position to see what it was she was reading. He could tell it was whatever was on the third page, but beyond that, he couldn't see a thing.

Slowly, Lucy lowered the paper and handed it over to Tina to read. She met James' eyes with a worried look.

"Bad," she said ominously.

"What kind of bad?" James pressed. But Lucy wouldn't say.

James waited impatiently for Tina to finish reading the article, and then she silently passed the newspaper over to James, her eyes wide and scared.

James' eyes immediately scanned for the appropriate headline and he felt his blood run cold as he found it.

_SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY AT GRAVESITE OF HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED_

James looked up and met Lucy and Tina's eyes with fear of his own. Lucy motioned for him to read the full article, and he looked back down, forcing himself to stay numb while he found out what was going on.

_Reports of suspicious activity around the gravesite of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were received and investigated last night by the Auror Office of the Ministry of Magic. Reports were received at approximately nine o'clock and Aurors were on the scene within the half hour, at which point all was quiet. It has been just about nineteen years since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was killed, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, by Harry Potter. Afterwards, the body was taken by an anonymous third party to a graveyard in Little Hangleton and entombed near his father and grandparents. No suspicious activity has been reported in this area until now. _

_Should we be worried? Is this an indication of the rising of a new Dark Lord? Is a third wizarding war on the horizon? The Auror Office is remaining tight-lipped on the subject and were unwilling to provide a quote. _

As James finished reading the article, he swallowed thickly and looked up at Lucy and Tina again.

"This can't be happening," he said, forcing himself not to panic.

"It doesn't necessarily mean anything," Lucy said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself as much as her friends. "It could just be some crazy wizard seeing things in the dark and thinking it was something more."

"Or it could be the first sign of a third wizarding war," Tina said, her face turning a ghostly white.

Lucy shook her head. "Don't let the article freak you out. The reporter was just speculating. That part wasn't based in fact. The facts are simple. A report was made, it was investigated, nothing was found. End of story. Let's not make this into more than it is."

"James, isn't your father the head of the Auror Office?" Tina asked, ignoring Lucy. "He probably knows what's going on."

James nodded. Even if his father weren't Head Auror, he was Harry Potter. Anything that had to do with Voldemort had to do with Harry.

"Probably," he agreed. "I'll write to him, see what's really going on." James reached into his pocket and located a spare bit of parchment. "Either of you have a quill or some ink?"

Lucy immediately reached for her bag, which she'd brought to breakfast with the intention of heading straight to the library afterwards to study. She grabbed the supplies James needed and handed them over while James cleared his dishes out of the way to make room to write.

_Father,_

_How are you? I'm sorry I didn't immediately respond to your last letter, but Quidditch practice has me so busy all the time, I barely have time to think. And to address your concerns, don't worry, I'm making sure to keep my grades up. Madame Volant was clear that eligibility for the Quidditch team is dependent on a minimum of an A average._

_I'm actually writing to you today because there was an article in the _Daily Prophet_ that had my friends and I a little concerned. Lucy insists we shouldn't worry yet, and that it's probably nothing, but I thought I would check with you, as you'd likely have more information than whatever reporter got assigned the story. _

_The _Prophet_ says that there was suspicious activity near Voldemort's gravesite and that the Aurors didn't find anything. Do you think there's cause for concern? Is something bad going on? Should we be worried? If something's going on that involves him, we should be prepared. Hogwarts was always his goal, and if he's coming back again, he's sure to strike here first._

_I'll wait for your reply before getting too worked up. And no need to owl Albus, I'll fill him in on the situation._

_Your son,_

_James_

James finished writing his letter and immediately jumped into motion.

"Alright, I'm going to head up to the owlery to mail this," he declared, the cold remains of his breakfast completely forgotten. "I'll meet up with you guys later."

James practically ran all the way to the owlery, much to the surprise and annoyance of many other students. He didn't have time to waste though. If something was going wrong, James and his friends needed to be prepared. And if nothing was going on, James could quell the rising panic before it became problematic.

A lot of the school owls were out delivering mail, and James had to climb practically to the top of the tower to find one that was free. He tied the letter to its leg and sent it away, hoping and praying that the return letter would contain good news. All he had left to do was wait, and try not to drive himself crazy while he did.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"Did you hear the news?"

"I heard someone vandalized the gravesite."

"I heard someone was trying to steal the body."

"I heard someone wanted to consume some of his flesh in order to absorb his dark power."

"Idiot, there wouldn't be any flesh left. He's been dead for nineteen years; it'd just be a pile of bones."

"It's called magic, dumbass. You don't think someone put a preservation spell on him before closing that tomb?"

"Why would someone use a preservation spell on him? He was evil. Let him rot."

"Well someone took the body and paid to have it moved and properly buried. Don't you think whoever did that might have also done a preservation spell?"

James tried hard not to listen to all the whispers and rumours about the article, but it was hard when everyone around him kept speculating about what could have been going on. At the moment, James was trying very hard not to pay attention to a debate that was going on between Shawn, Alex, and Nick, three of his dormmates.

"Didn't he get buried in a muggle graveyard?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know, would a preservation spell even work in a muggle graveyard?"

"Why wouldn't it? It has nothing to do with location, and everything to do with the power of the caster."

"So who cast it?"

"I don't know! Maybe there is no preservation spell. Maybe he's just a pile of bones, and the 'suspicious activity' report was a hoax."

"Who would report something like that if it weren't true?"

"Someone who wants to stir up trouble."

"Someone who wants to divert attention away from themselves."

"Why would someone need to divert attention?"

"Most likely because they're doing something they shouldn't be doing and they don't want people to be paying enough attention to notice."

"So then maybe we should be worried."

"We can't be worried if we don't know what's going on."

"I have no idea what's going on, but I'm still pretty worried."

With a sigh of exasperation, James got up from his very comfortable seat in the common room and moved to a much less comfortable one across the room. He just couldn't listen to their conversation anymore. It was getting him all worked up, and he didn't need to be getting worked up. He just needed to wait for his father to clear everything up, and then he could tell people that there was nothing to worry about.

"Hey James?" a couple first year girls approached him, looking nervous and scared. "Did you hear the news?"

James nodded.

"Well we were just wondering… is something going on? We figured you'd be the one to ask. Albus didn't know squat when we asked him, but you're so much more like your father."

James didn't know how to respond. For one thing, these girls didn't know him at all. They didn't know who he was like. They were judging him based on his looks, which admittedly, most of the world did too. And for another thing, James didn't know any more than they did. He couldn't in good faith pretend that he did.

But they looked so worried, and really, what was the point of causing a panic? Even if something were wrong, it wouldn't be productive to announce it to the whole school, let alone the first years.

"Everything's fine," he assured them. "It was just a false report. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh, good," the girl said in relief. Both looked immensely comforted at his words, and James felt good about that. "Come on, now we can tell Stephanie and Nicole."

The two girls hurried away, and James dropped his head into his hands. If things turned out to not be alright, he was going to feel really bad for lying to those girls.

A tap on his shoulder caused James to look up, and an older student, maybe a fourth or fifth year, pointed to the nearest window, where an owl was tapping to be let in.

"I think he wants you," the boy said.

James hurried over to the window and opened it up. The owl flew right into his chest, kicking at him with his pathetic little owl feet until James untied the letter. As soon as it was free, the owl flew off, presumably to the owlery for some food and rest.

Shutting the window, because it was November and it was cold, James took a deep breath and began to unroll the letter.

_Dear James,_

_I'm glad to hear you intend to keep up your grades, but I hope you don't intend to simply scrape by with A's in all your classes. Just because you need to maintain an A average isn't an excuse to be mediocre. Strive for O's, and do your absolute best. Remember that the better you do in your classes now, the better you'll do on your O.W.L.s, and the more of your O.W.L.s you pass, the more options you'll have when it comes time to choosing your N.E.W.T. classes._

_About the article you read in the _Prophet_. Don't let it worry you. I told them not to print anything about the incident, but of course the editors at the _Prophet_ just want to stir up readership, and they've been waiting years for the chance to run something with Voldemort's name in it again. I can't believe they still wont call him by his name, even after all this time. I guess fear never really fades. I'm glad I taught you not to fear a person's name, given or invented._

_But as I was saying, it was all a big misunderstanding. When we got there, there was nobody for miles, and nothing appeared as though it had been disturbed. My guess is someone from the _Prophet_ called in the anonymous tip to stir up a story to make money. They sure did seem to show up rather quickly once we'd returned from the scene. _

_So no need to worry or panic or anything. Nothing is going on, and Hogwarts is absolutely completely safe. And if something bad were to happen, remember that you're a student, not an Auror. You don't need to be preparing for anything. That's what me and my department are here for. This isn't like when I was in school. The Ministry is here to help now, not shadow the world from the truth._

_I've sent Albus an owl about this too. Not that I don't trust you to pass along my message, but I figure he'll be less worried if he hears about it from me. I'm hoping to get this situation under control before the press starts to turn it into something it's not, but could you do me one favor? Make sure you spread the word amongst your classmates that everything's fine. If I remember anything from my time at Hogwarts, it's that gossip spreads there faster than dragon pox, and if the students hear it from you, they'll tell their parents and word will get around pretty quickly from there._

_Give my best to Neville – that's Professor Longbottom to you – and Hagrid. And send a letter to your mother. She's a little upset that you addressed that last letter only to me, though she understands why you did it._

_All my love,_

_Dad_

James let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding as he finished the letter. Everything was alright. Nothing bad was happening. It was all some big newspaper conspiracy to sell more papers. It made a sick sort of sense, now that James thought about it.

He went straight to the library to find his friends. The four of them were all there working on an essay for astronomy. James had been working on his with them, but the silence of the library had grown too overwhelming and he'd moved to the common room in the hopes that he'd be less jittery waiting for his father's letter there.

When he arrived in the library, he was immediately shushed by Madam Maxwell for stomping. When he found his friends, the look on his face was enough to tell them what he'd learned, and he watched as all four of them relaxed in front of him.

"So it was all a bunch of nothing?" Lucy asked, all the stress gone from her voice.

James nodded. "False report," he confirmed. "No cause for concern. Newspapers blowing things out of proportion as always."

"Well that's a relief," Andrew said, leaning back in his chair and throwing his head back as he basked in the reassurance.

"Thank so glad," Tina said.

James frowned in confusion and Tina looked like she wanted to melt into the floor.

"I started to say 'thank Merlin', but switched to 'I'm so glad'," she revealed. "It came out all wrong."

"That's alright," Lucy assured her, patting her hand.

Tina's face heated up in embarrassment anyway. "Words," she mumbled, apparently refusing to say more than that lest she mess up again.

James resumed the seat he'd had previously and pulled his essay out of his bag to complete it. Now that the threat of something bad was gone, he could focus on his schoolwork. He would start spreading the word to the rest of the school later, maybe at dinner. For now, he had something else to focus on – keeping his grades up for Quidditch.


	13. November Year 2

_Year 2: Suspicious Activities_

Chapter 13: November 2017

The month of November began with a terrible scare throughout the entire school. One of the students had come down with a case of spattergroit. It threw everyone into a panic and before James knew it, he was sitting in the hospital wing with Madam Eldridge testing samples of his saliva to see if he'd contracted the disease too.

"All clear," she announced, much to James' relief.

And so, he returned to the common room.

Thankfully, the illness had been caught early and hadn't had time to spread throughout the school. Besides the original case, there was only one other student who had gotten it, and both were in Ravenclaw.

Though most of the school remained paranoid at first, worried that the disease might still be living in the walls of the castle and afraid that they might catch it, James and his fellow teammates were interested in one thing and one thing only. One of the girls with spattergroit was a member of the Ravenclaw quidditch team. And the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match was coming up very soon.

It would be a blow to the team that flew in blue and bronze. But for those wearing scarlet and gold, it was the greatest victory. Each of the house quidditch teams would have spent the past two months training up their very specifically and hand-picked teams in unique ways. The Ravenclaw team would have devised plays and learned certain configurations based on who their players were and what their relative strengths and weaknesses were. To lose a member of the team so close to the opening match would be devastating.

And it was sure to guarantee the Gryffindor team a win.

"Alright team," Adrian announced at their first practice after the news was announced. "Now I know many of you are excited about this new development, and I want to remind everyone that this is a time of great sadness for Ravenclaw house, and that we should remember that this is a Hogwarts student that's fallen ill, one of us. Also, I'd like to remind everyone that just because Ravenclaw are down a player doesn't mean we should underestimate them. They've got a couple of weeks to bring in a new chaser and whoever they choose, it's not going to be some first year that just learned how to fly. We need to keep pushing ourselves and make sure that we fly our best. It's when we assume the game is won before it's even begun that we risk losing altogether."

That practice was one of their best practices yet.

Afterwards, in the locker room, James tried chatting up some of his team members. Since joining the team, he hadn't gotten a chance to know them very well, since he'd mostly been focusing on making sure that he was flying well enough to justify his place on the team. But now that he was feeling more confident – especially in light of this setback for Ravenclaw – he thought it was about time he started bonding with his teammates.

"Rough news for Ravenclaw," he said to Tom Kelley, one of the beaters, as he stowed his quidditch robes in his locker. "I wonder who they'll pick to replace her."

"Yeah," Tom muttered, shutting his locker. "Hey Miles, wait up!" he cried out to the other team beater, Miles Bailey.

He hurried out of the locker room and James sighed to himself disappointed. He turned to the other chasers, Caitlin Bell and Sarah Radford.

"What do you think?" he asked. Both girls were fixing their hair, as it had gotten very messy and tangled during practice.

"About what?" Caitlin frowned. Clearly neither had been listening when he'd spoken to Tom.

"Who Ravenclaw might choose to replace that chaser," James said.

"_That chaser_ is my friend," Sarah declared, jumping to her feet in sudden indignation. "You could have a little more respect."

"Sorry," James said, raising his hands in surrender. He hadn't meant to come across as insensitive, he just didn't know the girl personally.

"My friends are waiting for me," Sarah declared then, grabbing her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. "Caitlin, do you want to walk with me?"

She made no such offer to James.

"Nah, you go on ahead," Caitlin said, pulling her now brushed hair back into a smooth ponytail.

James silently rejoiced at that. Perhaps Caitlin wanted to stay behind and talk to him some more.

James' hopes were dashed moments later though, when Adrian emerged from the shower area and her eyes immediately went to him.

"I wasn't at the Ravenclaw tryouts," James attempted to spark the conversation back to life, but Caitlin wasn't listening.

Adrian had finished dressing, and Caitlin jumped up and hurried over to him. The two drew close to each other and began to make out right there in the middle of the locker room.

"Ugh."

James turned at the sound and noticed that Brooke Hill, the team's chaser, was still pulling on her socks over in the corner of the room. Noticing James' attention on her, Brooke spoke.

"They could at least wait until we're all gone," she said, gesturing with her head in Caitlin and Adrian's direction.

"Right," James agreed. "Yeah. Definitely."

"Come on kid, let's get out of here," Brooke suggested, motioning for the exit.

Following the fifth-year seeker and prefect out of the locker room, James fell into step next to her as they headed up to the castle.

"I was at the Ravenclaw tryouts," Brooke said as they set out. "There were a few potential candidates."

It took James a minute to understand what she was saying and suddenly realized that she was continuing the conversation he'd been trying to start back in the locker room.

"Do you know Naomi Pullman? Or Noah Radford?"

"Radford as in Sarah?" James frowned, referring to his teammate.

Brooke nodded. "Noah's in Ravenclaw," she clarified. "Sorting hat split the family."

"Sometimes I wish it would have done that with mine," James muttered. "There are way too many Weasleys in Gryffindor Tower."

"Oh, that's right, you're Dominique's cousin," Brooke realized. "You know I'm friends with her, right?"

"Of course you are," James rolled his eyes. There were so many Weasleys in Gryffindor Tower that it was impossible to come across another housemate that wasn't friends with one of his relatives. On his team alone, Brooke, Tom, and Miles were all friends of Dominique's, Caitlin and Adrian were sort of friends with his cousin Victoire, and Sarah was friends with his cousin Molly.

"Anyway," Brooke went on. "If I had to make a bet, I'd guess that they'd bring in Naomi. She's older, a seventh year, and has more experience flying. Not that either of them has ever been on a team before."

"Whoever they choose, it's going to be hard work getting them ready for the match," James commented.

"That's a given," Brooke agreed as they reached the castle. "Anyway, see you later."

Before James could respond, Brooke had taken off up the stairs of the Grand Staircase. Though James was headed in that direction too, it seemed that their conversation was only meant to last as far as the Entrance Hall.

With a sigh, James began the long trek up to Gryffindor Tower. When he'd gotten on the team, he'd thought that it would mean that he'd become a part of a new community. He'd expected camaraderie, inside jokes, a boisterous locker room. He'd thought that his teammates would be his friends. But his teammates had friends of their own and it seemed that they really were just there to play quidditch and hopefully win the quidditch cup. They were a bunch of fourth, fifth, and seventh years. None of them were interested in hanging around with a second year like him.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"James, quit stooging!" Adrian cried.

The big match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer, and as such, the Slytherin and Hufflepuff teams had relinquished their pitch time to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would return the favor next month when Slytherin and Hufflepuff played each other.

It was one of their last practices, and Adrian was being as hard on them as ever.

"I'm not stooging!" James called back. He was being very careful not to fly over the line that marked the confines of the scoring area. He was however, hovering right on the edge, ready in case Caitlin or Sarah decided to throw him the quaffle and let him score for once.

Though at first, James had hung back a little bit and let Caitlin and Sarah do most of the scoring while he focused on assisting, he was getting tired of it. The first game was coming up and James wanted to score some goals of his own. He wanted the school to see that his making the team had nothing to do with who his parents were and everything to do with his talent.

"Finally, the thing he'd been waiting for happened. Sarah threw him the quaffle while Adrian was distracted protecting the goalpost nearest her, and as she flew out of the scoring area, James flew in, reaching out his hand and sending the quaffle sailing through the goalpost on the far right.

"James, no haver-sacking!" Adrian cried, flying over from the left side of the scoring area.

"I did not haver-sack," James insisted. "My hand was nowhere near the goalpost when that quaffle went in. It only looks like it because I kept flying forward after letting go."

"Well then don't keep flying forward," Adrian instructed him. "Once you've made your goal, get out of the scoring zone before the quaffle goes back into play."

Grumbling, James flew away from Adrian, fed up with all the reprimands. It seemed that the closer they got to the big game, the more fouls Adrian had tried to call him out on. He had not been stooging, he had not been haver-sacking, and he certainly had not cobbled with Brooke earlier. And why would he? Cobbling would only hamper her from searching for the snitch, which was against everyone's best interest.

"Alright, that's practice," Adrian called out then.

Reluctantly, James flew to the ground with the rest of his teammates. Though he wasn't a fan of always being picked on, or at least that was how he perceived Adrian's comments today, James still loved flying, loved the exhilaration of tossing the quaffle and dodging bludgers and scoring goals.

"Really good practice today everybody. Tom, Miles, keep working on your timing. If you can get just the tiniest bit more in sync, you'll have the _double bludger_ maneuver down," Adrian said.

The _double bludger_ maneuver was one of the trickiest of beater attacks. It involved both beaters hitting their bludgers in the direction of the same target so that the bludgers collided at the same moment. It required that the beaters be very in tune with each other, which Tom and Miles were.

"Brooke, try flying in more random configurations. If you keep flying the same patterns, the snitch might catch on and avoid you on purpose," Adrian advised.

Brooke nodded, seemingly aware that she'd accidentally fallen into a figure eight pattern today.

"Sorry, I had a lot on my mind, but I'll be sharp for the match," she promised.

"Great," Adrian nodded. "As for the chasers…" He turned towards James, Sarah, and Caitlin. "Remember to share the quaffle. Just because you're not the one making the goal doesn't mean you aren't contributing to the goal."

He met James' eyes as he said that and James hung his head. He knew this comment was directed at him. With the game drawing closer, he was suddenly obsessed with scoring his own goals. But he was picked for this team because he was a team player, and that's what he needed to bring to the match if they were going to beat Ravenclaw.

And they had to beat Ravenclaw. If they lost to the eagles after one of their own had been carted off to St. Mungo's and then replaced at the last minute, it would be a disgrace to the house of the lion.

James determined that he would do his best for the team. He'd put aside personal glory. If he spent the entire game assisting Sarah and Caitlin's goals, he could live with that. He'd still be a member of the victorious team. If the team lost, it wouldn't matter how many goals he'd made. All that would matter was that he'd contributed to a loss.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

The morning of the match was a chilly one. James dressed in layers, knowing that he'd need the warmth at the beginning of the game while he was still warming up, but that later on, he might need to remove a layer or two during a timeout once he'd been flying around for a while.

James' friends all waited for him in the common room that morning and walked down to breakfast with him. Though he was nervous, he was also ravenous, and ate until Lucy suggested that it might be a better idea not to pig out right before a strenuous quidditch match. He didn't want to hurl in the middle of the game, after all.

They all walked down to the pitch together, Andrew, Ashley, Tina, and Lucy all telling James that he was great, and building him up in preparation for the match. When they came to the entrance to the Gryffindor team's locker room, they all wished James good luck and then headed into the stands to get good seats. In high spirits, James entered the locker room to prepare.

The energy in the locker room was very different than usual. Normally, everyone was rather silent. Tom, Miles, and Brooke would often talk amongst themselves, and the others would exchange polite words back and forth. Today, everyone was loud and boisterous and excited.

"Are you ready, kid?" Miles asked when James walked on, slapping him on the back hard enough that James stumbled a little.

"Y-yeah," James stammered, surprised by the energy. He'd never seen the team feeling so much like a team.

"We're going to TEAR RAVENCLAW APART!" Tom cried, emerging from the shower area with red and yellow paint smeared across his cheeks.

Even Sarah, who James had observed was the most reserved and removed from the group, had let herself be swept up in the energy. She too was wearing the red and yellow paint on her face and she was high fiving Caitlin, though James didn't hear what it was they were high-fiving about.

"James?" Brooke's voice called out. "Come on, let me do your paint."

So James stepped towards the voice, which was coming from where Tom had been, and found Brooke sitting with some face paints and a couple of makeup brushes.

"Makeup?" James asked, immediately feeling self-conscious. He was a guy; he wasn't supposed to wear makeup.

"War paint," Adrian corrected him, appearing next to him with paint of his own on his face. "Come on kid, get with the spirit."

And James did. He let Brooke paint up his face, and then he changed into his Quidditch robes, letting the energy seep into his skin. He found himself high-fiving teammates at random and his whole body was jumping up and down from the dynamism of the atmosphere.

Eventually, Adrian had to quiet them all down for his pre-game pep talk, but even that was different than the usual pre-practice speech. This time, there were no reminders about things they'd done wrong the previous practice, no suggestions for adjustments to certain plays, no warnings to avoid committing specific infractions. This speech was purely motivational and inspiring.

They trooped out onto the pitch together, and as the crowd cheered and James flew up into the air to his designated position, he finally began to feel it. He was a part of the team. He wasn't just some guy flying next to a bunch of other similarly dressed people, he was one with them, an equal member.

The game began.

As Brooke had predicted, Naomi Pullman had been chosen to replace the chaser that had come down with spattergroit. And it was immediately evident that she had not been practicing as much as the rest of her team. She was slow, sloppy, unfamiliar with their plays. They tried to compensate for it, but a chaser is one of the hardest members of a team to replace last minute. Its so important for the chasers to be able to work together as one unit. And she was falling short.

Next to her, James looked like a superstar. Though he didn't make a single goal of his own, he assisted many of Sarah and Caitlin's goals, intercepted the quaffle from the Ravenclaw team countless times, and successfully cut off other players at key moments. He avoided getting hit by the bludger at all – he later discovered that a large portion of the school had placed bets on whether he was going to get knocked off his broom and end up in the hospital wing – and by the time the game came to an end, Gryffindor had won, two hundred and ninety points to twenty.

James knew the celebration in Gryffindor Tower would be glorious. He'd witnessed them last year. There would be food and drink, music and dancing. Team members would be lifted into the air and celebrated. They would chant his name and pat him on the back in congratulations.

But the celebration in the locker room was even better.

"You all played magnificently!" Adrian cried as soon as they'd all returned, the sounds of the cheering crowd still echoing behind them. "Couldn't have flown better. I'm so proud of you all."

Caitlin, Sarah, and Brooke each gave James a huge hug. Miles and Tom fist-bumped him, calling him 'man' instead of the usual 'kid'. Brooke touched up his war paint for the celebration upstairs, making sure that it was fresh and cleaning up and that had run off with sweat.

And while everyone began replaying the details of the game out loud, already immortalizing the best moments of the game into story, Adrian came over and patted James on the head.

"Welcome to the team, champ," he said. "You're officially one of us now."


	14. December Year 2

_Year 2: Suspicious Activities_

Chapter 14: December 2017

Before James knew it, he was back at Grimmauld Place for the Christmas holidays. It was just the same as it had always been in many ways, but in other ways it was so different. Now that he and Albus were both at Hogwarts, Lily had had the run of the house for almost four months. And it showed.

"She was so lonely after you both got on that train," Ginny confessed to James the first night back. "At least last year she still had Albus to play with, but now she's only got herself. We have Hugo over a lot more of course, but it still isn't the same for her."

Lily still had another year and a half before she would be old enough to go to Hogwarts and she was impatient.

"James, teach me all about magic," Lily insisted the following morning. She had burst into James' room at what seemed like practically dawn, and grabbed his wand off his desk. "Show me how to cast spells."

"Lily, put that down," James said in a sudden panic. There was a reason witches and wizards didn't start learning magic until they were eleven. Magic in younger children was volatile and unpredictable. It only started to settle down when they reached the age of ten. A wand in the hands of a nine-year-old could do a lot of damage.

"Why?" Lily demanded, pouting. "I want to learn magic now. Then I can go to Hogwarts with you and Albus."

"Alright," James agreed. "I'll teach you some magic. But only if you give me back my wand."

Considering her options, Lily handed the wand over, much to James' relief. He would need to remember to store his wand in a more secure location. He thought that now he understood why his parents both carried their wands on their person at all times, even in the safety of their own house.

"Alright," Lily declared, jumping up onto James' bed so that she was sitting on his legs. "Teach me magic."

"Well I can't very well do it while I'm pinned down," James pointed out.

Lily crossed her arms. "I'm waiting," she said petulantly.

James sighed. "Well I can't show you any spells," he said, "because we're not allowed to do magic outside of school. It's the rules. I could get kicked out for it; you know."

"You couldn't even," Lily insisted. "Besides, I know how that works. I overheard Daddy talking to one of his aurors in the floo last month. They can't tell if you do magic, only if magic is done around you. You can say Mummy or Daddy cast the spell."

"But don't you think Dad would know that it wasn't him or Mum who did the magic when the notice came through?" James pointed out.

Lily shook her head obstinately. "Daddy has a lot to deal with right now," she said, trying to sound wise. "He doesn't have time to be checking on little things like this. He's Head Auror, you know."

"Yeah, I know," James nodded. As if he didn't know how important his own father was. But Lily was right. Cases of potential underage magic would be monitored by low-level officials. A case of magic at Harry Potter's residence wouldn't even be considered of consequence. Everyone knew he had three underage children.

James' ears did pique when Lily had said that Harry was dealing with a lot at work. James wondered if it had anything to do with the rumours about Voldemort's tomb from back in October. Whatever it was, James didn't want to ask Lily about it. She wouldn't understand such things.

"Alright fine," James finally agreed, pushing Lily off his legs so he could sit up. "Here, take this quill." He grabbed a quill of his desk and handed it to Lily.

"What's this for?" Lily frowned, holding the quill like it was a dirty sock.

"You can pretend it's your wand," James said. "So you can practice casting the spell along with me."

Without a word, Lily dropped the quill on the bed and ran off.

Shaking his head at his sister's bizarre behavior, James figured that since he was awake, he might as well get up. He crawled out of bed and started to pull off his pyjamas.

"What are you doing?"

James jumped. Lily was back, and standing in his doorway watching as he changed.

"Lily!" he cried, pulling his pyjama shirt back over his head. "I could have been naked!"

"Oh calm down, I've seen your stomach before," Lily rolled her eyes. "Mum used to give all three of us baths together, so I'm sure I've seen worse than that."

"Yeah, back when we were really little," James pointed out. "I would have been three or four. But I'm thirteen now. It's different."

Lily shrugged, seemingly not caring. "Whatever," she said. Then she showed James the thing that she was holding in her hands. It was a stick, probably a twig that she'd picked up in the backyard, or at the park. For a twig, it was rather straight, and it looked like Lily had even attempted to carve it a little to make it more wand-shaped. "_This_ is what I'll be using," she declared. "Not that lame quill."

James rolled his eyes. "Fine," he agreed.

He picked up his wand again and sat Lily down on the edge of the bed, taking care to shut the door. Then he sat down next to her and pointed at the pile of laundry sitting in the middle of the room.

"Alright," he said. "Now the first spell any good witch or wizard learns when they start at Hogwarts is levitation."

"Levitation," Lily said, already enraptured. She was gripping her stick so firmly that her palm had started to sweat.

"Right," James nodded. "So we're going to make that shirt on top of the pile levitate away from the rest, alright?"

Lily nodded, the words that usually tumbled out of her at rapid pace now gone.

James raised his wand and pointed it forward.

"Now, there's two things you need to remember when you cast a spell. Movement and incantation. The wand movement for this spell is swish and flick."

He demonstrated the movement, swishing and flicking his wand in the air without actually doing the spell.

"But nothing happened," Lily pouted, looking at the pile of laundry.

"Of course it didn't," James agreed. "I didn't say the incantation. Come on now, this is how you learn magic. Try it for yourself. Swish and flick."

Irritably, Lily flicked her wrist in a movement similar to James' but not quite right. James didn't bother to fix it. It wasn't as though he was actually teaching Lily to do magic. He was just humoring her.

"Perfect," James said. "And now for the incantation. _Wingardium leviosa_. Now you say it."

"_Wingardum levisa_," Lily repeated, again not quite right.

"Perfect," James lied. He raised his wand again. "Now together. Move your wand at the same time that you say the incantation, and we'll levitate that shirt over there."

James cast the spell, Lily mimicking him with her stick, and the shirt began to lift, hovering over the pile of laundry. James held the spell for a moment while Lily whooped and shrieked, dropping her stick in her excitement.

"I did it!" she cried. "I did it! I did magic!"

"Sure," James nodded with a frown. Surely she realized that he was the one who'd actually cast the spell, given that he was the one with the functional wand. But Lily was so excited, he didn't bother to correct her. "So there, now you've learned magic. Happy?"

"I'm going to go and tell Mummy and Daddy," Lily declared happily. "Now that I've started to learn magic, they'll have to send me to Hogwarts early."

James caught Lily around the middle and pulled her back into the room, re-shutting the door she'd just opened.

"Now hold on a minute," he said. "You can't tell Mum and Dad that I cast a spell. You know what the rules are for using magic outside of school, and just because the ministry wouldn't know doesn't mean they won't punish me."

"I'm not going to tell them _you_ did magic," Lily said, as if this was ludicrous. "I'm going to tell them that _I_ did magic."

James frowned. "So you're not going to say I did any magic?" he asked.

"Of course not," Lily shook her head. "You only told me the steps. I'm the one that did it."

James considered that for a moment. While it certainly wasn't the truth, he supposed he could make Lily's version of events work in his advantage. If questioned by his parents, he could always say the shirt never actually levitated, and that Lily must have imagined that part in her head after he taught her the wand movement and incantation.

James let his sister go.

"Mummy! Daddy! Guess what?" she screeched, running down the hall.

Now that Lily was happy and dealt with, James had other things to do. He quickly got changed and pulled his covers back over his bed in a haphazard way, knowing that his mother would chastise him later for not making his bed properly. It was hard to muster the energy to make his bed knowing he was only going to mess it up again later that night. And it was especially hard after months of living in a castle where the house elves took care of things like that.

For some reason, Ginny refused to let Kreacher perform tasks like making beds and tidying up toys. At least for James, Albus, and Lily. James had seen him making his parents' bed once and had thought it was awfully hypocritical of his mother to make his bed when she didn't have to make her own. But he hadn't said so, because then he would have ended up having to do the dishes with Kreacher that night.

Once James was dressed, he snuck out of his room, tiptoeing down the hall and listening for sounds of others in the house. From what he could tell, Lily was still in his parents' room, trying to convince them that yes, she could do magic now, and watch while I levitate your entire bed.

James rolled his eyes. Even he, a second year, couldn't yet levitate something as heavy as an entire bed. His magic wasn't strong enough yet for something of such immense weight.

Knowing Albus, he would still be asleep at such an early hour. Even if he wasn't asleep, he wasn't likely to be lurking in Harry's office anyway. And James presumed Kreacher would be down in the kitchen preparing breakfast. This was his chance.

Sneaking down to the second floor, James slipped into Harry's office as stealthily as possible. Once inside, he slipped over to the desk and began to look over the papers on top, looking of any mention of Voldemort.

When the newspaper article had come out about movement near the gravesite of the greatest dark wizard of all time, James had been nervous. But Harry had quelled his fears, saying that it was probably just a hoax. Since then however, James had been feeling a little off about the whole thing.

Whether or not someone had actually need there, the story had been printed. Someone had wanted to bring Voldemort's name back to the forefront of people's minds. Why?

Harry had said that it was probably just the newspapers trying to make money, but something about it felt off to James.

And then James found it. It wasn't much. It looked like some sort of memo, an unofficial note that Harry had received from another member of his department. In no way was it any kind of official letter or form.

_Four more sightings of movement near the tomb. Both sightings by muggles. Magical law enforcement got to them before the media got wind of the rumors. Will be posting permanent security at the site for the time being to investigate any further rustlings or whisperings. So far, no concrete evidence of tampering found._

The sound of a throat clearing caused James to freeze in his tracks. Very slowly, James turned around to find his father standing in the doorway to the office, a very unpleasant expression on his face.

"And what do you think you're doing young man?" Harry demanded in his very rarely used you're-in-trouble voice.

James took a step back from the desk, hands up in the universally accepted pose of surrender. He swallowed thickly as he tried to think of an excuse for why he was in his father's office this early in the morning, reading what were probably highly confidential correspondences. Of course, if they were highly confidential, they should probably be locked away, not sitting out in the open where anyone could read about it.

"I – I was just – "

"Save the lies," Harry put up a hand to stop James. "I've invented enough of them to know the face of someone who's trying to cover up what he's really doing."

Harry strode across the room and picked up the bit of parchment James had been reading. He frowned.

"What were you reading this for?" he asked.

James sighed, deciding that his best bet would be to tell the truth. At least then he'd have his punishment and be done with it. If he lied, he'd likely still be punished, and then possibly a second time for the lie if he was found out somehow.

"I couldn't help but feel like there was more to the whole thing than you let on back in October," James confessed. "And Lily mentioned that you had a lot to deal with these days… And I was right, wasn't I? There is more going on than you let on."

"Not really," Harry said, putting the parchment back down. "I mean, sure there've been a couple of muggles who say they've seen things, but that's not unusual, especially in a graveyard. Muggles like to think they've seen ghosts or spirits. They think it's more likely that a ghost would appear in a graveyard, where all the dead bodies are buried.

"But that makes no sense," James frowned. "A ghost would have completely severed it's connection to the body upon death. If anything, it would have a connection to the place where it died. The place where it's buried would be the last place it would go, unless the person had had a previously existing connection to their gravesite before death."

"Well I know that and you know that, but the muggles don't know that. They can be very superstitious, you know. Some of them think that if a black cat walks in front of them, it's bad luck," Harry replied.

James scoffed. "Only black cats? What about other kinds?"

"Nope," Harry shook his head. "Only the black ones, for some reason."

James laughed at the notion that muggles could be so silly.

"Anyway, the point is, the reports are most likely fake. After the first rumors started spreading, the muggles got it in their head that this tomb in particular was haunted. Most likely this made them want to go and check it out, hoping they might see a ghost or apparition of some sort. It's entirely likely that they made up the stories of seeing shadows and hearing noises because they wanted people to think they'd run into something supernatural."

"Why would they do that?" James frowned.

Harry shrugged. "Well it hasn't been my experience, that's for sure, growing up in a muggle family. Your great aunt Petunia and great uncle Vernon hated magic, even more then than they do now. But there are some muggles out there who go looking for magic, even where there isn't any."

"What about the extra security?" James asked, still feeling uneasy.

"Mostly that's just to keep the muggles away," Harry confessed. "There are some muggles out there who will do crazy things if they think something magical is going on. We just don't want any accidents because of a bunch of ignorant muggles getting too close."

"What do you mean?" James asked nervously. "If he's dead, what could happen?"

"Nothing like that," Harry assured James, immediately understanding James' fear. "But lets say a group of muggles decides to break into the tomb and have a séance – "

"What's a séance?" James asked.

"It's where they try to talk to the dead by lighting candles and holding hands in a circle," Harry explained.

"That's – "

"Stupid, I know," Harry agreed. "But muggles don't understand how real magic works. "Anyway, let's say they break in and try to hold a séance, because they think the tomb is haunted and they don't know any better. Now let's say a group of wizards finds out what they're doing. Given who's tomb we're talking about, those wizards are likely to get really upset really fast. They're going to want to stop the muggles doing what they're doing."

"Even though they know séances aren't real things?" James asked.

Harry nodded. "Fear can make people do crazy things. Even the passing thought of someone doing something suspicious near that tomb in particular brings up so many memories and pain. That article in the _Prophet_ stirred up a lot of old emotions and panic. It still hasn't fully died down. A group of wizards that came across a group of muggles holding a séance in Voldemort's tomb might get blind sighted by the feelings of terror and dread. They might end up doing something bad."

"You mean like killing the muggles?" James asked.

Harry nodded. "_That's_ why we have aurors keeping an eye on the tomb. Just to make sure that everyone stays away and that we don't have any scares or any misunderstandings. Not because we're afraid he's coming back from the dead. Trust me. No magic can reawaken the dead. I know that better than anyone."

"You're absolutely sure?" James asked, a teeny tiny part of him still nervous his father wasn't telling him the whole truth.

"James, do you see this scar?" Harry asked. He moved his hair off his forehead – he usually kept his scar covered in public to lessen the staring, not that it helped much. Everyone in the wizarding world knew Harry Potter's face by now.

James nodded.

"When I was a teenager and Voldemort was out there, I could always tell because my scar would hurt," Harry confessed.

James didn't say anything to risk interrupting his father. Harry Potter was very closed off about his life involving Voldemort. James supposed it was a time Harry preferred to try to forget about, or at least not think about constantly.

Over the years, James and his siblings had heard some of the stories. Some Harry had told them himself – like the story of the time he, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione had broken into Gringotts and then escaped on a stolen dragon. It was the reason why Gringotts always posted extra security on Harry and the family when they visited their vault. They still didn't fully trust him, even after he'd paid them back for the damages and the dragon they'd had to replace.

Some stories James had heard from his aunts and uncles. It had been his Uncle George that had told him about the time that Harry had been entered into the Triwizard Tournament by a Death Eater and then forced to battle a dragon with only a wand and a broom. It had been his Uncle Ron who'd told him all about the time that Harry had gone down into the Chamber of Secrets and defeated Slytherin's monster, saving James' mother in the process. It had been his Aunt Luna who'd told him about the time that they'd flown from Hogwarts all the way to the Ministry of Magic on the backs of thestrals on a rescue mission.

But there was a lot from that time that Harry never shared with anyone anymore. There were things that only he and Ginny, and Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione knew about. Other things, only Harry himself knew. This new piece of information was one that James had never known about, and he was sure his siblings didn't know about it either.

"It would prickle, whenever he was close by, or doing something evil," Harry went on. "When he came back, I knew right away that it wasn't an illusion or a hallucination, because of my scar. From that day until the day I killed him, my scar could always feel him. But I haven't felt the slightest tingle since he dropped onto the floor that day in the Great Hall. For nineteen – almost twenty years – I haven't felt a thing. I'll be the first to know if anything fishy's going on."

"Alright," James said, feeling slightly comforted.

"Now," Harry said, getting serious again. "Normally I would have to punish you for snooping around in my office. You know you're not allowed in here."

James hung his head ashamedly.

"But," Harry said then. "I understand that you were just worried. So, this one time, I'm going to let you off with a warning. But next time I expect you to come to me when you have these kinds of worries, all right?"

Relief washing over James at the thought that he wasn't going to be punished, he nodded fervently and hurried to the door.

"Thanks Dad," he said just before exiting the room.

Though he knew he shouldn't have gone snooping, he was glad he'd done it, if only because the conversation it had prompted with his father had made him feel much more settled about the whole thing. He didn't need to worry about dark wizards rising from the dead. For one thing, it wasn't going to happen, and for another thing, his father was in charge of the entire Auror Office now. If he'd been able to defeat Voldemort the first time while the whole Ministry of Magic was against him, imagine what he could do if something similar ever happened again?

With a spring in his step, James headed down to the kitchen in search of breakfast, focusing on his excitement about the upcoming Christmas festivities and the big family reunion they would soon be having at the Burrow.


	15. January Year 2

_Year 2: Suspicious Activities_

Chapter 15: January 2018

"Potter!"

The name had been shouted from beyond the glass door of the train compartment. James turned his head to find Jason Nott and Parker Parkinson standing in the corridor right outside, staring through the window at him.

James sighed. "What now?" he muttered to himself.

His first term at Hogwarts had gone exceedingly smoothly. Though there'd been that small altercation with Nott at the beginning of the year where he'd threatened to kill James by repeatedly hitting bludgers at him, the rest of the term had been surprisingly quiet on the Slytherin front.

James had figured that Nott's plate was full now that he was a beater for the Slytherin team and that he no longer had the time to antagonize James. Apparently, he'd been wrong.

"What do you want Nott?" James called out.

Nott advanced, throwing the door open and causing Tina, Lucy, and Ashley all to slide a little closer to the window. James and Andrew however, stood their ground.

"I thought I told you to stay out of my family's business," Nott said angrily, stepping right up to James who rose to meet him at full height.

"What are you talking about?" James demanded, surprised and confused by the nature of the confrontation. He'd barely even thought about Nott during the past few months, so what could he possibly have done?

"Prison guards wouldn't let us in to see my father for Christmas," Nott said, raising his chin. "I'm supposed to be allowed three visitations per year – Christmas Day, Easter Day, and his birthday."

"And you think I had something to do with it?" James asked in bewilderment. How on earth was he supposed to have revoked the visitation rights of some man he didn't even know?

"Obviously you were mad at me for making the Slytherin team. You're probably scared I'll beat you when Slytherin plays Gryffindor. So you wrote to Daddy and had him take away my rights," Nott spat.

James didn't even know how to respond. Nott's accusations were so preposterous. It was like arguing with Lily.

"You really think my father has the time to worry about little things like that? He's got an entire department to oversee you know," James replied.

"I'm sure he makes time for his little golden boy," Nott sneered.

"Golden boy?" James frowned. "I think you've got the wrong idea. Besides, even if I asked him to do something like that – _which I never would_ – he wouldn't do it."

"I'm sure that's what you'd like me to think," Nott retorted.

"It's the truth," James replied as authentically as possible. He wasn't trying to hide anything, wasn't trying to mess with Nott at all. He didn't want this rivalry that Nott had created for himself in his head. If anything, James would prefer the two never to interact at all.

"Just watch your back, Potter," Nott said, spinning on his heel and striding out of the compartment.

The others in the compartment took a moment to recover from his departure.

"What was that all about?" Ashley asked.

"You didn't really write to Uncle Harry and ask him to revoke some prisoner's visitation, did you?" Lucy frowned.

"Of course not," James insisted. "You really think I'd do something like that."

"Not a chance," Tina said earnestly.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Andrew asked, worry in his face.

James shook his head as he sat back down. "I don't know," he confessed. It could go either way. Nott's threat back in September had yet to produce any real fruit. Maybe this was just words, a way for Nott to let off steam over not being able to visit his father over Christmas. Maybe yelling at James was enough. Or maybe worse was yet to come. James sighed. "We aren't even back at Hogwarts yet, and things are already a disaster."

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That night, as James was climbing into bed, he was interrupted when an owl began pecking at his window.

James hurried to let it in without letting too much of the cold outside air into the dormitory. After the confrontation with Nott, James had written to his father. He obviously didn't think Harry had revoked visitation rights for Mr. Nott. As Head Auror, he had far more important things to deal with. But James was still curious why Jason hadn't been allowed to visit his father. Perhaps if James knew the reason, he could reason with Nott the next time a similar situation presented itself.

_James,_

_I was surprised to hear from you so soon. You must have gone straight to the owlery when you got off the Hogwarts Express, even before heading to the Great Hall for the welcome back fast. _

_I was also surprised by the nature of your question. I hadn't realized that any of your friends had parents in Azkaban, let alone for Death Eater crimes._

Not wanting to alert his father to the fact that he had a Slytherin arch-nemesis, James had lied and said that he was asking the reason for the visitation ban on behalf of a friend. He also hadn't named Mr. Nott specifically; in case he hadn't been the only one to have visitation revoked.

_To answer your question, yes. Certain visitation rights have been revoked recently. It started after the article in the _Daily Prophet. _You know the one, it's the same one that got you all worked up. The one about the rumors of movement around Voldemort's tomb._

_In the aftermath of that, there was a great deal of panic and worry amongst the wizarding population, and as a response, the Ministry decided it would be best to cut off all contact with anyone convicted of being a Death Eater. Let me assure you, this is simply a temporary measure. We just don't want the inmates getting big ideas about Voldemort returning and breaking them out and a third wizarding war taking place. I know he's gone, and you know he's gone, but there are those who aren't so convinced. Many of those in Azkaban are of the mind that if he came back once he could come back again, and that kind of hope could rile them up and possibly even incite a mass breakout attempt if they got organized enough._

_I'm telling you all of this because I know you'll be discreet with the information, and because I do feel badly for the families that have been affected. The families of Death Eaters shouldn't have to be punished for the crimes their loved one has committed, and it's unfortunate that they have to miss out on spending time together because of this. Hopefully we will able to restore visitation soon, though that decision ultimately lies with the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and not with me._

_I hope this explanation at least helps your friend in knowing that its not forever. I may even suggest that once the ban is lifted, that prisoners who were affected be offered an extra visitation day or two to make up for the ones that were lost. We aren't trying to punish anyone any more than they already have been, just keep things under control._

_Good luck on your second term. Hopefully we'll see you over the Easter holidays._

_Love, Dad_

As James reached the end of the letter, he found himself feeling mixed emotions. He was immensely glad to know that Nott hadn't been the only one affected by this new rule. Perhaps once Nott had returned to the Slytherin common room and conferred with some of his housemates, he would realize that he hadn't been specifically targeted. On the other hand, it was entirely possible that this would incite a full-scale riot from the affected Slytherins, quite possibly the entire house.

It wasn't a secret that almost all the convicted Death Eaters had come from Slytherin house, and many of their children had continued in the tradition their families had set out for them. Slytherin house more than any other at Hogwarts would be feeling the effects of the visitation revocation. And if Nott rallied them all together, it was unlikely that they would listen when James tried to tell them that it was only temporary and that they'd get the visitation days back when this was all over.

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It was a relief when James stepped into the Great Hall the next morning to find that nobody was immediately coming at him. His dreams had been rather exaggerated, including such scenes as the entire Slytherin table running him down while he stood inside the double doors of the Hall, or casting spell after spell at him until the teachers finally intervened.

But none of that was happening. In fact, none of them even glanced his way as he made his way to the Gryffindor Table for breakfast. None except for Nott, that is.

Nott kept his eyes trained on James all through the morning meal, and as they made their way to class, James found himself suddenly cut off from the rest of his friends and cornered in the corridor just outside of charms class.

"Turns out I'm not the only one you screwed over," Nott said in a low voice.

"This is all a big misunderstanding," James said, hoping to diffuse the situation.

"I don't want to hear any more of your lies," Nott declared.

"They're not lies," James insisted. "I had nothing to do with this. The Ministry revoked visitation rights for all the Death Eaters – "

"So you admit it?" Nott cried erratically. "The Ministry is discriminating against us!"

"No!" James said hurriedly. "This isn't discrimination, it's…" He struggled to figure out how to describe it but couldn't. In a way, it was discrimination. James understood why it was necessary, but Nott wouldn't.

"My father is a good man!" Nott hollered, now drawing the attention of students who were passing by on their way to class. "He doesn't deserve to be treated this way!"

"The Ministry is just worried," James tried to defend his position. "They don't want a mass breakout."

"That's what they think?" Nott practically screeched. "They think that if they let us visit our parents that we'll try to break them out of prison? Just because my father is a criminal doesn't mean we all our. Or will we always be criminals to you Gryffindors? Will the Slytherins always be lesser in your eyes?"

"That's not – I'm not explaining this right," James said in frustration. Nott was twisting all his words and he couldn't get his thoughts straight in his head. People were starting to gather now, to watch the altercation, and James desperately wished for someone to come and bail him out.

"Then explain it," Nott challenged him. "Tell me why you got to have Christmas with your entire family, probably sitting around a tree opening presents with a fire crackling nearby, while I spent mine standing out in the rain for hours, surrounded by dementors, only to be turned away when my turn for visitation finally came."

James couldn't think of a response. The truth was that it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that James got to see his family whenever he wanted. It wasn't fair that he could write his father any time of day and receive a reply almost immediately while Nott could only see his father three days a year. It wasn't fair that Nott barely knew his father and that he neve really would.

But it was fair that Nott's father was in Azkaban. Mr. Nott had made his choices during the war just as Harry had made choices of his own. And it wasn't James' fault that he'd been born Harry Potter's son, just as it wasn't Nott's fault that he was born into the family he had been.

"You're picking a fight with the wrong person," James said. "I didn't do this. If you want to be mad, be mad at the Ministry."

"Oh, I am," Nott said. Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Nott reach into his pocket and grab his wand, and James surreptitiously did the same. "Your father is the Ministry, isn't he?"

"My father is Head of the Auror Office," James corrected. "He's hardly the Ministry."

"But he's got the Ministry in his back pocket," Nott smirked. "The Ministry would do anything he said. And you – well he'd do anything you asked him to do."

"I think you're overestimating my abilities," James said, causing a couple of students nearby to snicker and then cover their mouths when Nott glowered at them.

"Regardless," Nott said. "There are enough witnesses here now that my point will have been made. I can't strike against the Ministry while I'm stuck here at Hogwarts, but I can strike against you."

The two boys raised their wands at the exact same moment and cast their spells simultaneously.

"Flipendo!"

"Rictusempra!"

While James went sailing into the wall behind him, Nott dissolved into a fit of uncontrollable laughing. James hit the wall with a smack and fell to the floor. Most of the impact had been to his back, and thankfully his head had avoided smacking into the stone, so while he was sore, he was able to pick himself back up off the floor.

Nott was clutching at his sides as he attempted to cast the counter-charm on himself. He struggled with the incantation as he continued to laugh in pain.

"Petrificus totalus," James cried, trying to hit Nott again while he was incapacitated.

Unfortunately for him, Nott dodged this spell neatly while also curing himself of the tickling hex.

"Expelliarmus!" Nott cried.

James' wand clattered to the floor and James felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. His father's signature spell used against him. It was humiliating.

James dove for his wand and grabbed it, spinning around with another hex ready to go, but at that moment, Professor Flitwick appeared and stepped between the two boys.

"What's going on out here?" she demanded, hands on her hips.

"He attacked me!" James and Nott both spat the accusation at each other at the same time and Professor Flitwick sighed. The rest of the students who had been watching began to melt away, slipping inside the charms classroom to avoid having to testify on either boys' behalf.

"You should both know better than to pick a fight in the corridor, especially right outside a classroom," Professor Flitwick chastised. "I can't imagine anyone would have dared such a thing when my uncle Filius taught this subject."

"Professor Flitwick?" a new voice chimed in.

James audibly groaned, immediately recognizing the voice.

"Professor Flitwick, I saw everything!" It was Zacharias Smith, pushing his way in the opposite direction of the rest of the students with zeal. "It was Nott that started the fight. James was just defending himself."

"That's not true," Nott insisted. "I was trying to have a friendly conversation, but Potter drew his wand on me. What was I going to do? Not defend myself?"

"Enough!" Professor Flitwick cried, holding up her hands in frustration. "Detention for the both of you."

"But James is innocent!" Zacharias cried indignantly. "He's the victim in all this."

"Would you like to join them in detention, Mr. Smith?" Professor Flitwick threatened.

James groaned again, already knowing the outcome and dreading it deeply.

Zacharias grinned, looking over at James with glee written all over his face.

"Yes please," he requested.

Throwing her hands up in defeat, Professor Flitwick shook her head. "Alright fine then. Detention tonight for all three of you. Seven o'clock sharp. Don't be late."

She stalked back into the classroom and James followed, not wanting to get stuck out in the corridor with either Nott or Zacharias Smith.

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"Let me get this straight. He _asked_ to be in detention with you?" Andrew asked when James recounted the events to him later.

"Are you really that surprised?" James asked. "This isn't the first time he's gone out of his way to join me in detention. He thinks it's fun, the twisted creep."

"What are you going to do?" Andrew asked.

"What can I do?" James replied. "It's detention, I can't not go."

"You could request a different time," Andrew suggested. "You could ask to serve your alone."

James shook his head. "I'll suffer through it and then it'll be over. It can't be that bad."

But he was wrong.

It was one of the most painful detentions James had ever suffered, because this time, it didn't involve manual labor that he could use to take his mind of what he was doing.

Professor Flitwick wanted them to write lines.

For James and Nott, two thousand times: _I will not duel in the halls_. For Zacharias, two thousand times: _I will learn to hate detention._

"Psst," Zacharias whispered to James, about twenty minutes into their detention.

James ignored him. He wasn't about to risk getting in more trouble for talking to Smith when he was supposed to be writing lines. It wasn't worth the extra detention.

"Psst."

James groaned.

"What?" he hissed back. If Zacharias kept psst-ing at him, it was bound to draw Professor Flitwick's attention. At the moment she was completely absorbed by a lesson plan she was working on, but James didn't doubt she was completely alert.

"Isn't this fun?" Zacharias asked, a huge smile plastered across his face.

James rolled his eyes, not bothering to dignify the question with an answer. Of course it wasn't fun, it was detention.

It took James forever to finish his lines, but he still managed to finish before either of the other boys.

"Professor Flitwick?" he asked, raising his hand. "I've finished. May I leave?"

"But we've only just started having fun!" Zacharias protested.

James ignored this, bringing his parchment up to the front of the classroom for Professor Flitwick to look over.

"This looks fine," she nodded. "You're excused."

"What about me?" Nott spoke up. "I've been here as long as he has."

"Have you written two thousand lines?" Professor Flitwick asked.

Nott shook his head and she shrugged, looking back down at her work.

As James passed Nott's desk on his way out the door, Nott sent him a death glare.

"Great," James muttered to himself, stepping out into the corridor. "One more thing for Nott to hate me for."


	16. February Year 2

_Year 2: Suspicious Activities_

Chapter 16: February 2018

Nott continued to be a thorn in James' side for the rest of January and into February. James ended up getting stuck with a number more detentions, some as a result of Nott's actions and some as a result of James' retaliations. It was becoming clear to James' professors that things were escalating between the two boys and Professor Longbottom asked James to stay behind after class one day. It was their last class of the day, so they would have plenty of time to talk.

"I want to talk to you about Jason Nott," Professor Longbottom said. They were still in the greenhouse and the professor took out a watering can and began to water the abyssinian shrivelfigs as they talked. He handed James a can as well and James begrudgingly joined in the activity.

"What about him?" James demanded, very conscious of the close friendship that his parents had with Professor Longbottom. James didn't want his father to know about his problems with the Slytherin boy. His father had counselled him many times on keeping his nose clean and not starting any rivalries that would only bolster house stereotypes, but it hadn't been James who'd sought Nott out. It had been the other way around, and there hadn't been much James could do to stop Nott from continuing to harass him.

"It seems the two of you have been clashing a lot recently," Professor Longbottom noted.

James shrugged. "I guess," I muttered noncommittally. If Nott was going to come at him, James wasn't going to sit passively and take it. He was going to fight back. He would take the detention over letting the Slytherin walk all over him.

"Anything you want to talk about there?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"Not really," James responded, knowing that it wouldn't be enough. He was right.

"Listen James," Professor Longbottom said, putting down the watering can. "I know you're a good kid, which is why I haven't written to your parents yet about all of this. If you were some other kid, I probably already would have. But your behaviour is getting out of control and if it continues, I'm not going to have a choice."

"Please don't write to my parents," James pleaded. After the whole debacle last year getting caught outside after curfew, his parents would never forgive him for continuing to get into trouble.

"Give me a reason not to," Professor Longbottom challenged James.

James sighed. "It's not me," he insisted. "It's Nott you should be talking to. He's the one coming after me. All I do is defend myself."

"Trust me, Nott will be speaking with his Head of House soon too, if not already," Professor Longbottom assured James. "But we're talking about your actions. Sometimes violence isn't always the answer. Have you considered just turning the other cheek?"

"It's not that easy," James insisted. It was hard to ignore Nott when he was insulting James and his father and his entire family, throwing spells at him in the corridors and threatening worse. It was in James' nature to want to fight back. He was a Gryffindor after all. He was no coward.

"I know it's not easy," Professor Longbottom agreed. "But what if you called for a teacher before you start throwing curses at each other?"

James shook his head. "And be the guy that's always tattling to the teachers?" he asked. "No thanks. Besides, usually he casts the first curse. It's not like I can do a shield charm yet, I have to defend with what I know."

"You know how to dodge," Professor Longbottom noted. "Drawing your wand in retaliation is a choice that you make, not one he forces you into. Besides, don't you think he wants you to draw your wand? He's only winning if you're in detention too."

Professor Longbottom made a good point, but James was still skeptical. To not draw his wand would make him look weak, like he was afraid to duel the Slytherin. James didn't want to appear weak in any way, especially in front of Nott and his friends.

"I don't know," James shrugged. "It's just hard, in the moment. The things he says sometimes make me lose my head."

"What sort of things is he saying?" Professor Longbottom inquired.

James mumbled something unintelligible, not wanting to get into it. If he told Professor Longbottom about Nott's grudge against him and his father, there was no way he wouldn't write to James' parents, and James wanted to keep that part of their conflict a secret. His father had enough to worry about.

"Alright, you don't have to tell me," Professor Longbottom allowed. "But you're running out of chances." It was a warning, and James recognized it immediately as such. "If you continue to rise to Nott's provocations, I am going to write home and tell your parents what's been going on."

James nodded. "I understand," he said. There was no use arguing it. The fact that Professor Longbottom had let things go on as long as they had was shocking, considering the friendship he had with Harry and Ginny.

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Thankfully, over the next few days, Nott didn't attempt to provoke James into a fight. James honestly wasn't sure what he was going to do when the time came, but it was nice to have a bit of a break. Probably his conversation with Professor Tonks had caused him to lie low for a while.

For once since the beginning of the second term, things were looking up.

Classes were going rather smoothly as well. James was struggling a little in history of magic, but it was only because of how boring the class was. Besides, neither of his parents had passed their history of magic O.W.L.s, so there was no reason for him to be concerned with the subject.

It was close to the end of the month when Professor Derlid asked James to stop by his office after classes were over. James was a mixture of curious and nervous as he went about his day, anticipating the meeting with his defence against the dark arts teacher later on. When his final class of the day was let out, James made a beeline for the fifth floor and hurried up the staircase to Professor Derlid's office.

The door to his teacher's office was slightly ajar, and James pushed it open as he knocked, peeking in. Professor Derlid quickly stuffed something he'd been holding into a drawer and shut it before standing and smiling at James. Frowning, James couldn't help but look at the drawer suspiciously. What had his Professor been so eager to hide in there?

"James," Professor Derlid said, drawing his attention. "I wanted to talk to you about your recent displays in the corridors, particularly those involving Jason Nott."

James sighed. "Professor Longbottom already gave me the speech," James assured the teacher. "And we haven't duelled again since."

"Actually, I didn't call you here to reprimand you," Professor Derlid shook his head. "I actually wanted to applaud you."

"What?" James frowned, completely thrown off guard.

His teacher nodded. "I've caught the tail ends of a couple of your duels, and I've heard the other professors talk about them. You have a real talent for duelling."

"I do?" James frowned. Usually he and Nott only managed to exchange a couple blows before they were interrupted and the duel was halted by an intervening teacher. Duelling wasn't particularly subtle, what with the shouting and the bright lights of the spells.

"Yes," Professor Derlid confirmed. "And I thought I might suggest that if you wanted to develop your skills, perhaps you might be interested in joining the duelling club."

"Duelling club?" James asked in surprise. "I didn't know we had one of those."

"I'm reviving it," Professor Derlid declared. "But I don't want it to be like the last one where just anybody could join. I only want the best duellers, and I think you're one of them."

It was an intriguing offer, but James would have to think about it. He didn't have all that much free time, what with quidditch and all.

"What was that you put in your top drawer when I came in?" James asked then, boldly, his curiosity getting the better of him. The way his teacher had shoved it in so frantically had caught James' attention. It was suspicious, to say the least.

"That's none of your business," Professor Derlid said harshly. "Now are you in or out?"

"I'll think about it," James decided.

Professor Derlid accepted this answer, and as James backed out of the office, he watched Professor Derlid return to the seat behind his desk and hovered in the doorway, hoping that he would open the drawer and reveal whatever it was that he'd thrown in there. Instead, Professor Derlid looked at James with an irritated expression.

"You're excused," he said.

So, James left.

When he arrived back in the common room, he immediately gathered his friends together.

"Guys," James said in a whisper. "Guys there's something up with Professor Derlid."

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked.

"There's something off about him," James insisted. "When I went to talk to him in his office just now, he was hiding something in his desk. I don't know what it was, but he wouldn't let me see it, and he refused to tell me what it was when I asked. I think he's up to something."

"Or it was something personal that has nothing to do with you," Andrew suggested.

"Or something confidential about another student," Tina posited. "It could have been literally anything."

"It was something bad," James insisted. "I know it. He's up to something sinister."

"James, don't you think you're overreacting?" Lucy asked pointedly.

James frowned. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

"Just…" Lucy hesitated. "Is it at all possible that you only saw what you wanted to see?" she asked.

James still didn't understand. "Why would I want my Professor to be hiding something suspicious?" James demanded. "That's ridiculous."

"Well, when your father was at school, he was always uncovering sinister plots and unmasking dark wizards disguised as professors. I think it's possible that you're trying to maybe copy him a little bit?" Lucy suggested.

James scoffed. He wasn't trying to copy his father, Professor Derlid was hiding something, James knew it. And he was going to find out what it was.

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None of James' friend would join him. They all thought he was being ridiculous, but James knew he wasn't. This wasn't about his father or the many defence against the dark arts teachers who'd been villains in disguise back in his day. This was about the very real thing that Professor Derlid was hiding in his desk.

Thankfully, James still had the Marauder's Map from when he'd stolen it from his father a year prior. If his father had noticed it missing, he hadn't said a word on the subject, and James hadn't made any attempt to return it. It was too useful.

James waited on the fifth floor, hidden behind a suit of armor, until he saw Professor Derlid's dot on the map leave his office and head in the direction of the Great Hall. It was suppertime after all, and everyone needed to eat at some point. James suspected that he'd have a decent amount of time to search the office since Professor Derlid would likely be at supper for at least half an hour, probably longer.

Once his Professor was far enough away, James boldly walked up to the classroom and through it to the office. There was no reason to hide, for all anyone knew, he could be seeking out Professor Derlid for a homework question, or he could have a scheduled appointment to discuss his grades.

Once he slipped inside the office, James shut the door behind him so that nobody would see what he was doing. He left the Marauder's Map open on top of the desk so that he'd see if anyone was approaching and then he moved around the desk to try the drawers.

Unsurprisingly, the drawers were locked. James attempted an unlocking spell, but it didn't work. Obviously, his teacher had put more protections in place than a simple lock. That was fine.

James frowned at the drawer, wondering what to try next. He looked around the top of the desk for any indication of a way to get it open, but there was none. Next, he began searching the rest of the room. There had to be something in here that would be useful. Either something to help him to open the desk, or else something to give him a hint as to what was inside.

There was a large filing cabinet in one corner of the room that James went to which surprisingly opened with ease. He quickly began thumbing through the files, noting that there were files for each of Professor Derlid's students. James paused briefly at his own, noting that it was flagged with a note that said _potential for dueling club_. There was a similar flag on Jason Nott's file, and James suddenly felt much less enthusiastic about the idea of joining. The less time he spent in close quarters with Nott, the better.

He opened one of the lower drawers and found more files with documents from the Ministry about the course, order forms for textbooks and supplies for the class, and then at the back, a folder that was marked _personal_.

Curiously, James pulled this folder out and brought it over to the desk where he opened it up on top of the map.

The first thing he saw when he opened it was a clipping from the _Prophet_ of the article that had run in October about Voldemort's tomb. Thumbing through the next few pages, James found more clippings of similar articles that had run subsequent to the first, all having something to do with Voldemort's tomb.

Behind those were clippings from twenty years ago, some talking about the Battle of Hogwarts, when his father had finally beaten Voldemort. Most notable was an article talking about what had been done with Voldemort's body after the battle, how it had been claimed and entombed in the graveyard in Little Hangleton.

Behind those articles were dozens and dozens of clippings of articles about Voldemort from the years leading up to his death. There were articles about his return, events that had been linked to him, articles about James' father and predictions that he was destined to one day destroy Voldemort.

As James quickly looked through the rest, he saw that they dated as far back as before his father's birth. It was a collection of sorts – every article that had ever been written that had anything to do with Voldemort. And it was in a folder marked _personal_. James shivered. Something wasn't right.

At that moment, James noticed movement on the map near where he was and saw that Professor Derlid's dot was on its way back to his office. Frantically, James shoved the newspaper clippings back into the folder and stuffed the folder back into the filing cabinet. He grabbed the map and hurried out the door and into the corridor, slipping into a small alcove just as Professor Derlid was passing by.

Thankfully, the Professor didn't see him. Unfortunately, James now knew the truth. There was something not right about Professor Derlid.

JjJjJjJjJjJ

"I still think you're overreacting," Lucy insisted.

"He had a folder full of articles about him," James insisted. "Don't you think that's a little weird?"

"I don't know," Lucy threw up her hands. "But it's no reason to assume that he's evil."

"He's obsessed with Voldemort!" James cried.

"Maybe he's just interested in the topic from a defence against the dark arts teacher standpoint," Ashley offered. "I mean, he was the greatest dark wizard Britain's ever seen. He's exactly the kind of wizard we should be learning to face off against, in case another one was ever to rise up."

"Don't say that," Tina shivered.

"He's up to something," James insisted. "I didn't even get a chance to look in that drawer, but I know that something's going on here that isn't right."

"James, stop trying to be Uncle Harry!" Lucy cried suddenly, causing the others to fall silent. "You keep thinking you need to do everything he did, but you don't. You thought you had to be a seeker, but you learned that you were better as a chaser. You got upset when you couldn't cast the disarming charm. And now you're compensating by trying to uncover a dark plot. But there's no plot! Professor Derlid is just our teacher and you need to stop trying to hard to be someone that you're not."

James was quiet for a moment. Lucy was wrong. This had nothing to do with his father. Sure, Harry Potter had solved some mysteries in his day. There was Professor Quirrell, who'd been hiding Voldemort on the back of his head. There was Professor Moody, who wasn't actually Mad-Eye-Moody, but a Death Eater drinking Polyjuice Potion. There had always been something sinister going on when Harry Potter had been at Hogwarts. And that was exactly why James knew that something sinister was going on now. Just because Voldemort was gone didn't mean there weren't still dark wizards out there, and if his folder was any indication, Professor Derlid was a fan.

But James couldn't just go to Professor Longbottom or Professor Slinkhard about it when his only evidence had been gained by snooping around illicitly. And his friends refused to believe him when he assured them that there was something off about Professor Derlid. So, James would just have to keep an eye open himself. He'd watch and he'd wait, and if Professor Derlid stepped out of line, he would be waiting.


End file.
